Data hiding in images based on tolerable error range

Previous proposed steganographic schemes based on tolerable error range (TER) can restrict the distortion caused by data hiding within an acceptable range, but both the stego-image and the original image are necessary for extracting the secret message. This paper presents a novel TER-based steganographic scheme, in which JPEG compression under a certain quality factor is regarded as TER, and the modification caused by data hiding on each pixel is less than that caused by JPEG compression. A verification mechanism is introduced to embed the quality factor which is used in JPEG compression. Furthermore, the JPEG version of the stego-image based on the novel scheme is the same as that of the corresponding original one while embedding secret bits. On the receiver side, the hidden message can be obtained by subtracting the stego-image from its JPEG version, and the original cover image is not needed. Experimental results show that the proposed scheme can produce a stego-image with acceptable quality and the capability of withstanding statistical detection.