Improving Data Hiding Capacity Using Bit-Plane Slicing of Color Image Through (7,4) Hamming Code

Achievement of high-capacity data hiding with good visual quality is an important research issue in the field of steganography. In this paper, we have introduced RGB color image and bit-plane slicing for data hiding through Hamming code using shared secret key. We partitioned the color image into (3 x 3) pixel blocks and then decomposed into three basic color blocks. Again each color blocks are sliced up to four bit-plane starting from LSB plane. Now, a segment of three bits secret data is embedded within each bit-plane depending on a syndrome calculated using hamming code. As a result, 36 bits secret data can be embedded within (3 x 3) pixel block and achieve a high payload capacity with good visual quality compared with existing schemes.