A secure image steganography based on Hamming codes and image block complexity estimation using a zig-zag order

Data hiding in digital images has received considerable attention in recent years. Research efforts have primarily focused on increasing embedding capacity while preserving the visual quality of stego-images. In this paper, we propose a data hiding scheme based on Hamming codes. To enhance visual quality, the scheme estimates block complexity from pairs of adjacent pixels arranged in zig-zag order and uses this measure to identify high-texture regions for embedding message bits. To further minimize distortion, secret bits are embedded using the proposed Hamming code-based method. Moreover, embedding capacity is increased by utilizing multiple pixel bit-planes. A Canonical Gray Code (CGC) is employed in the bit-plane decomposition process to improve the accuracy of texture characterization in data hiding. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed scheme achieves higher embedding capacity, improved visual quality, and stronger resistance to detection attacks.