A Data Hiding Technique for JPEG Color Images by One-Dimensional Spectrum Modification

A method of hiding data in images for applications such as carrying identification and authorization information in a picture or logo is proposed. By converting a JPEG-compressed color image to a one-dimensional signal in R, G, or B and using an arbitrary sampling rate of 16 kHz, masked frequencies in the 1-D signal are determined for each segment or block. Imperceptible hiding of given data is carried out by modifying the spectral power at a pair of commonly occurring masked frequencies. Preliminary results show that the spectrum modification technique is simple to process with barely noticeable distortion in the data-embedded image. Using an oblivious technique and a key consisting of the frequencies where spectrum is modified, successful data retrieval with no bit errors has been observed. Embedded image corrupted by low level noise still retained the hidden data with low bit errors