Data Hiding Technique using the Characteristics of Neighboring Pixels and Encryption Techniques

In this paper, we propose a data hiding technique that effectively hides confidential data in the LSB of an image pixel by using the characteristics of the neighboring pixels of the image and the encryption techniques. In the proposed technique, the boundary surface of the image and the flat surface with little change in pixel values are investigated. At the boundary surface of the image, 1 bit of confidential data is encrypted and hidden in the LSB of the boundary pixel to preserve the characteristics of the boundary surface. In the pixels of the plane where the change in pixel value is small, 2 bits secret data is encrypted and hidden in the lower 2 bits of the corresponding pixel. In this way, when confidential data is hidden in an image, the amount of confidential data hidden in the image is greatly increased while maintaining excellent image quality. In addition, the security of hidden confidential data is strongly maintained. When confidential data is hidden by applying the proposed technique, the amount of confidential data concealed increases by up to 92.2% compared to the existing LSB method. The proposed technique can be effectively used to hide copyright information in commercial images.