Histogram-based Reversible Data Hiding Based on Pixel Differences with Prediction and Sorting

Reversible data hiding enables the embedding of messages in a host image without any loss of host content, which is proposed for image authentication that if the watermarked image is deemed authentic, we can revert it to the exact copy of the original image before the embedding occurred. In this paper, we present an improved histogram-based reversible data hiding scheme based on prediction and sorting. A rhombus prediction is employed to explore the prediction for histogram-based embedding. Sorting the prediction has a good influence on increasing the embedding capacity. Characteristics of the pixel difference are used to achieve large hiding capacity while keeping low distortion. The proposed scheme exploits a two-stage embedding strategy to solve the problem about communicating peak points. We also present a histogram shifting technique to prevent overflow and underflow. Performance comparisons with other existing reversible data hiding schemes are provided to demonstrate the superiority of the proposed scheme.