Abstract
Image sharing is a technique that is used to protect the security of a secret image by placing it into shadows. In this paper, we propose a new image sharing scheme based on the quadri-directional search strategy with meaningful shadows. In the proposed scheme, a modulus reference table is generated and used to share different sizes of the secret image. By doing so, the proposed scheme can preserve the high image quality of the shadows. In the secret image recovery phase, we can reconstruct the secret and cover images losslessly. Our experimental results demonstrated that the proposed scheme can share different sizes of secret images while maintaining good image quality of the shadows. Compared with some previous image sharing schemes, the proposed scheme provides better performance in both embedding capacity and image quality. The proposed scheme also achieves higher embedding capacity than some previous reversible data hiding schemes while keeping small distortion in the shadows.







Similar content being viewed by others
References
Chang CC, Chou YC, Kieu TD (2009) Information hiding in dual images with reversibility. In: Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Multimedia and Ubiquitous Engineering, pp. 145–152.
Chang CC, Hsieh YP, Lin CH (2008) Sharing secrets in stego images with authentication. Pattern Recog 41(10):3130–3137
Chang CC, Lin CC, Lin CH, Chen YH (2008) A novel secret image sharing scheme in color images using small shadow images. Inf Sci 178(11):2433–2447
Chang CC, Lu TC, Horng G, Huang YH, Hsu YM (2013) A high payload data embedding scheme using dual stego-images with reversibility. In: Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Information, Communications and Signal Processing, pp. 1–5.
Chen TH, Tsao KH (2009) Visual secret sharing by random grids revisited. Pattern Recog 42(9):2203–2217
Chen TH, Wu CS (2011) Efficient multi-secret image sharing based on Boolean operations. Signal Process 91:90–97
Chen CC, Wu WJ (2014) A secure Boolean-based multi-secret image sharing scheme. J Syst Softw 92:107–114
Huynh NT, Bharanitharan K, Chang CC (2015) Quadri-directional searching algorithm for secret image sharing using meaningful shadows. J Vis Commun Image Represent 28:105–112
Lin PY, Chan CS (2010) Invertible secret sharing with steganography. Pattern Recog Lett 31:1887–1893
Lin PY, Lee JS, Chang CC (2009) Distortion-free secret image sharing mechanism using modulus operator. Pattern Recog 42(5):886–895
Lin CC, Tsai WH (2004) Secret image sharing with steganography and authentication. J Syst Softw 73(3):405–414
Lu TC, Tseng CY, Wu JH (2015) Dual imaging-based reversible hiding technique using LSB matching. Signal Process 108:77–89
Naor M, Shamir A (1995) Visual cryptography. Lect Notes Comput Sci 950:1–12
Qin C, Chang CC, Hsu TJ (2015) Reversible data hiding scheme based on exploiting modification direction with two steganographic images. Multimed Tools Appl 74(15):5861–5872
Shamir A (1979) How to share a secret. Commun Assoc Comput Mach 22(11):612–613
Shamir A, Naor M (1996) Visual cryptography II: improving the contrast via the cover base, Security Comm. Networks 16–17.
Stalling W (2003) Cryptography and network security: principles and practice, 3rd edn. Prentice-Hall, Upper Saddle River
Wang RZ, Su CH (2006) Secret image sharing with smaller shadow images. Pattern Recog Lett 27(6):551–555
Wang D, Zhang L, Ma N, Li X (2007) Two secret sharing schemes based on Boolean operations. Pattern Recog 40(10):2776–2785
Wu YS, Thien CC, Lin JC (2004) Sharing and hiding secret images with size constraint. Pattern Recog 37(7):1377–1385
Zhao R, Zhao JJ, Dai F, Zhao FQ (2009) A new image secret sharing scheme to identify cheaters. Comput Stand Interface 31(1):252–257
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Nguyen, TS., Chang, CC. & Wu, HL. Adaptive image sharing based on the quadri-directional search strategy with meaningful shadows. Multimed Tools Appl 76, 2627–2643 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-016-3251-3
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-016-3251-3