High-fidelity reversible data-hiding technique in encrypted images using pixel value ordering and center folding strategy

We propose a reversible data-hiding approach in encrypted images (RDHEI) to cope with the new security threats emerging with artificial intelligence and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). This dual image-based high-capacity RDHEI technique ensures security with better embedding capacity. On the sender side, the correlations of adjacent pixels are disrupted by encryption. Hence, except for the intended receiver, no one can intercept the image. This encrypted image is used as a cover image, and pixel value ordering is applied. After that, the center folding strategy is used to form dual stego images for hiding data inside both images. Pixels with maximum and minimum values are employed for data hiding. The experimental results indicate the greater resilience and imperceptibility of the discussed technique over several current strategies. The suggested plan incorporates secret bits based on the image properties. One benefit of using the suggested technique is that the process of decrypting the image and extracting the data are independent. The recipient with just the data-hiding key may recover the concealed data without any compromise, while the receiver with only the decryption key can precisely retrieve the original image without any knowledge of the data-hiding key. This makes this scheme suitable for IIoT devices with a limited processing power for image collection. (c) 2024 SPIE and IS&T