Revisiting the steganography techniques with a novel region-based separation approach

Abstract

Cryptography and steganography are employed to secure digital data transfers. We introduced an efficient region-based steganography pipeline to enhance security by concealing confidential information within an image. Our approach involves isolating the blue channel from the cover image, partitioning it into blocks, identifying smooth blocks, and embedding the message in the Least Significant Bit (LSB). Smooth blocks were determined using the Pixel Value Differencing (PVD) method, which compares a specific pixel value to the block’s average pixel value (M) of the particular block. Concealed areas exhibit greater imperceptibility in smooth regions than in rough ones. We performed experiments on a carefully chosen image set and assessed the performance of the region-based steganography method using widely recognized metrics such as PSNR, MSE, and SSIM. These metrics were applied to a widely recognized benchmark dataset for comparison. Results indicate significantly improved PSNR and SSIM levels for selected images, confirming the suitability of smooth, edge-free regions for concealing hidden messages with greater imperceptibility. We compared our method with recently published steganography methods and observed a significant enhancement in its ability to conceal information effectively.