Reversible data hiding in JPEG images utilising zero quantised coefficients

A novel technique for data hiding in JPEG images is proposed. The technique relies on modification of zero quantised coefficients in each image block, in contrast to most previously proposed methods which also affect non-zero coefficients and/or the quantisation tables. Both embedding and extraction are performed on a per-block basis, without the need to preprocess the whole image. The proposed technique provides significantly lower distortion for similar embedding capacity, compared with recent state-of-the-art techniques.