Title: Wavelet-transform steganography: algorithm and hardware implementation

Authors: Bassam J. Mohd; Thaier Hayajneh; Ahmad Nahar Quttoum

Addresses: Computer Engineering Department, Hashemite University, P.O. Box 150459, Zarqa, Jordan ' Computer Engineering Department, Hashemite University, P.O. Box 150459, Zarqa, Jordan ' Computer Engineering Department, Hashemite University, P.O. Box 150459, Zarqa, Jordan

Abstract: Steganography is a powerful method to conceal the existence of secret data inside a cover object. The concealment steps are performed in the spatial domain and/or the transform domain such as wavelet transform. While it is harder to detect, the transform domain steganography involves complex computations. Hence implementing steganography in hardware improves the steganography system performance. The preservation of the entire secret information is one of the main challenges for the transform domain steganography. Errors, introduced by quantisation steps, destroy some of the embedded secret bits. In this paper, we present a novel algorithm to embed and extract the entire secret data in the Haar wavelet-based transform without any secret information loss. This is accomplished by special clipping mechanism as well as modifying the placement of the secret bit in the transform coefficients. The algorithm is implemented in an FPGA-based hardware, and its performance metrics are examined including resources utilisation, power, timing and energy.

Keywords: data security; image processing; very-large-scale integration; field programmable gate arrays; FPGA; digital signal processing; DSP; transform domain steganography; wavelet transform; hardware implementation; secret data.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESDF.2013.058657

International Journal of Electronic Security and Digital Forensics, 2013 Vol.5 No.3/4, pp.241 - 256

Received: 17 May 2013
Accepted: 12 Sep 2013
Published online: 26 Jul 2014 *

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