An Improved Reversible Data Hiding Scheme by Changing Modification Direction of Partial Coefficients in JPEG Images

TL;DR

This paper introduces a reversible data hiding method for JPEG images that optimizes modification directions of AC coefficients to reduce visual distortion and file size increase, outperforming previous schemes.

Contribution

It proposes a novel reversible data hiding scheme that adjusts modification directions of partial AC coefficients to improve image quality and reduce file size increase.

Findings

Better visual quality of marked images.

Smaller file size increase compared to previous methods.

Effective at the same embedding payload.

Abstract

This paper first reviews the reversible data hiding scheme, of Liu et al. in 2018, for JPEG images. After that, a novel reversible data hiding scheme, in which modification directions of partial nonzero quantized alternating current (AC) coefficients are utilized to decrease distortion and file size increase caused by data hiding, is proposed. Experimental results have shown that the proposed scheme has indeed advantages in visual quality and smaller increase in file size of marked JPEG images while compared to the state-of-the-art scheme with the same embedding payload so far.