A Reversible Data Hiding Scheme with Security Enhancement Using a Secure Bit Selection Strategy for AMBTC-Compressed Images

Reversible Data Hiding (RDH) is an approach that has garnered significant attention from researchers over the past two decades. In this paper, an Absolute Moment Block Truncation Coding (AMBTC)-based RDH approach is proposed. To increase the embedding capacity (EC), the approach utilizes the high mean and low mean values for data hiding. Additionally, a binary matrix from the AMBTC compressed code is employed to embed the given message bits into encrypted information arrays using the XOR (exclusive OR) operator. This mechanism enhances the security of the hidden message through a secure bit selection method. Consequently, the embedding capacity of the proposed RDH scheme can exceed 98,301 bits when an image block of size 4 × 4 pixels is used. Moreover, the visual quality of the stego-images produced by the proposed RDH scheme surpasses that of state-of-the-art RDH approaches.