Data hiding in halftone images with noise-balanced error diffusion

In this letter, we propose a low-complexity algorithm for embedding watermarks into two or more error-diffused images. The first one is only a regular error-diffused image, and the others are achieved by applying the proposed noise-balanced error diffusion technique (NBEDF) to the original gray-level image. The visual decoding pattern can be perceived when these two or more similar error-diffused images are overlaid each other. Furthermore, with the proposed modified version of NBEDF, the two halftone images can be made from two totally different gray-tone images and still provide a clear and sharp visual decoding pattern.