PROMISE: A QR Code PROjection Matrix Based Framework for Information Hiding Using Image SEgmentation

As data sharing increases explosively, such information encoded in QR code is completely public as private messages are not securely protected. This paper proposes a new 'PROMISE' framework for hiding information based on the QR code projection matrix by using image segmentation without modifying the essential QR code characteristics. Projection matrix mapping, matrix scrambling, fusion image segmentation and steganography with SEL(secret embedding logic) are part of the PROMISE framework. The QR code could be mapped to determine the segmentation site of the fusion image as a binary information matrix. To further protect the site information, matrix scrambling could be adopted after the mapping phase. Image segmentation is then performed on the fusion image and the SEL module is applied to embed the secret message into the fusion image. Matrix transformation and SEL parameters should be uploaded to the server as the secret key for authorized users to decode the privatemessage. And it was possible to further obtain the private message hidden by the framework we proposed. Experimental findings show that when compared to some traditional information hiding methods, better anti-detection performance, greater secret key space and lower complexity could be obtained in our work.