Secure Halftone Image Steganography Based on Feature Space and Layer Embedding

Syndrome-trellis codes (STCs) are commonly used in image steganographic schemes, which aim at minimizing the embedding distortion, but most distortion models cannot capture the mutual interaction of embedding modifications (MIEMs). In this article, a secure halftone image steganographic scheme based on a feature space and layer embedding is proposed. First, a feature space is constructed by a characterization method that is designed based on the statistics of 4 x 4 pixel blocks in halftone images. Upon the feature space, a generalized steganalyzer with good classification ability is proposed, which is used to measure the embedding distortion. As a result, a distortion model based on a hybrid feature space is constructed, which outperforms some state-of-the-art models. Then, as the distortion model is established on the statistics of local regions, a layer embedding strategy is proposed to reduce MIEM. It divides the host image into multiple layers according to their relative positions in 4 x 4 blocks, and the embedding procedure is executed layer by layer. In each layer, any two pixels are located at different 4 x 4 blocks in the original image, and the distortion model makes sure that the calculation of pixel distortions is independent. Between layers, the pixel distortions of the current layer are updated according to the previous embedding modifications, thus reducing the total embedding distortion. Comparisons with prior schemes demonstrate that the proposed steganographic scheme achieves high statistical security when resisting the state-of-the-art steganalysis.