Image-in-image hiding using complete complementary sequences

This paper addresses a data-hiding problem where a source image needs to be hidden into another host image. We consider both cases when the decoder has access to the host image (non-blind data-hiding), and when the decoder does not (blind data-hiding). Our proposed solution combines complete complementary (CC) spreading sequences and nested scalar quantization (NSQ). To enhance security, the source image is encrypted prior to embedding. Our simulation results, for both non-blind and blind data-hiding, with AWGN attacks show competitive results. Indeed, for blind data-hiding, our design outperforms the traditional NSQ system by 8 dB.