Adaptive real-time reversible data hiding for JPEG images

Data hiding used to embed data, such as copyright information, into various forms of media such as image, audio, or text with a minimum amount of perceivable degradation to the “host” signal. Therefore, in many cases, the cover media contain distortions even after the hidden data have been extracted. Thus, to extend the application of data hiding to some sensitive domains such as military, medical, and fine arts, which require the embedded cover images to be properly covered, reversible data hiding has become another new branch of this field. Our proposed scheme is inspired by Chang et al.’s idea. In this paper, we propose adaptive real-time reversible data hiding for JPEG images using successive zero coefficients in zigzag sequences of discrete cosine transformation blocks. The contribution of our proposed scheme successfully enhances the hiding capacity while the image quality of stego image and reversibility are maintained. The result of experiments conducted indicates that the proposed scheme enhances data hiding capacity, image quality, and improves performance.