Information Protection and Recovery with Reversible Data Hiding

We propose an effective scheme for protecting and recovering sensitive information based on reversible data hiding techniques in this paper. It is commonly seen that confidential information within an image is deliberately removed, marked or mosaicked before being delivered to the public, including displaying the marked images on the TV screens or newspapers. However, in some cases such as the plate number of VIP´s car, the information need be retained by some means. With our scheme, confidential information in an image can be protected, and then adaptively hidden, based on the characteristics of original image, with reversible data hiding techniques. It is done by first mosaicking the region with confidential information, and then delivering the modified image to the public. Only those who have the right to view the confidential information can recover original image with the secret key. Simulation results demonstrate their applicability and usefulness.