Gray-Version Invariant Reversible Data Hiding Scheme Based on 2D Histogram Modification for Color Images

In this paper, a new color image-based reversible data hiding scheme for gray-version invariance using two-dimensional histogram modification is proposed. The proposed scheme first decomposes the color images into its components, i.e., R, G, and B and then secret data is embedded into its two components, namely G and B using proposed embedding strategy. The proposed embedding strategy basically uses prediction error expansions and pairwise embedding for secret data hiding. To maintain the same grayscale version as of actual colored cover image, the pixel intensity values of R component are adjusted according to the modification done in the G and B channels. Therefore, the proposed scheme embeds an impressive amount of data and also result in better image quality while retaining the gray pixel intensities. The experimental results also prove that the proposed technique has shown greater embedding enactment than the existing interrelated arrangements in terms of visual quality at different embedding capacities.