Data Hiding via Steganographic Image Transformation

Shuichi TAKANO
Kiyoshi TANAKA
Tatsuo SUGIMURA

Publication
IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Fundamentals of Electronics, Communications and Computer Sciences   Vol.E83-A    No.2    pp.311-319
Publication Date: 2000/02/25
Online ISSN: 
DOI: 
Print ISSN: 0916-8508
Type of Manuscript: Special Section PAPER (Special Section on Intelligent Signal and Image Processing)
Category: 
Keyword: 
steganography,  data hiding,  multimedia,  fractal,  Fourier filtering method,  fBm (fractional Brownian motion),  computer graphics,  

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Summary: 
This paper presents a new data hiding scheme via steganographic image transformation, which is different from conventional data hiding techniques. The transformation is achieved in the frequency domain and the concept of Fourier filtering method is used. An input image is transformed into a fractal image, which can be used in Computer Graphic (CG) applications. One of the main advantages of this scheme is the amount of data to be hidden (embedded) is equal to that of the host signal (generated fractal image) while it is in general limited in the conventional data hiding schemes. Also both the opened fractal image and the hidden original one can be properly used depending on the situation. Unauthorized users will not notice the "secret" original image behind the fractal image, but even if they know that there is a hidden image it will be difficult for them to estimate the original image from the transformed image. Only authorized users who know the proper keys can regenerate the original image. The proposed method is applicable not only as a security tool for multimedia contents on web pages but also as a steganographic secret communication method through fractal images.