Reversible Data Hiding in Image Steganography using Improved Histogram Shifting Algorithm

In this study, the variability is reduced for the histogram shifting algorithm without degrading the embedding capacity. To achieve this goal, the peak values as well as zero values for the existing histogram algorithm are determined. After that, adjacent pixel bins of obtained peak values are moved towards the zero values. Next, LSB algorithm is utilized to hide the secret data in a cover image to obtain the stego image. After that, the variability amongst the given cover and obtained stego image is calculated. If this variability amongst the given cover and obtained stego image is more than 50% then the secret data is flipped else no flip operation is performed over the secret data. A comparative analysis for standard Histogram Shifting Algorithm and proposed algorithm is performed for all the selected cover images using different performance parameters such as MSE, PSNR, EC, NC and NAE. The results indicate that the proposed algorithm provides lesser MSE values and better PSNR values when compared with existing histogram shifting algorithm for the images such as 𝐿𝑒𝑛𝑎, 𝐵𝑎𝑟𝑏𝑎𝑟𝑎, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐹𝑒𝑚𝑎𝑙𝑒. However, EC, NC and NAE values are similar for both the proposed and existing algorithms.

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