Image steganography using Discrete Wavelet Transformation and Artificial Bee Colony Optimization

With the evolution of Internet Technology the need for the security of information during its transmission has also increased rapidly. Steganography plays a prominent role in the field of data hiding and providing a means for secret communication. Steganography basically refers to the process of secretly hiding messages into a cover medium in a way that only the receiver can suspect its existence. In this paper a new technique for image steganography has been discussed that utilizes the LSB substitution in the contour region of the image. The Pixel Value difference of the region has also been taken in to account in order to increase the embedding capacity of data. A new fitness function has been designed for the Artificial Bee Colony Optimization Algorithm that helps to calculate the best positions where data can be embedded. The results obtained using the proposed method provide an increase of approximately 33% in the hiding capacity as compared with the previous technique. It also results into an effective PSNR range varying from 60 to 75 thus increasing the visual quality of image.