A steganographic method based on Integer Wavelet Transform and Genetic Algorithm

This paper proposes a novel steganography scheme based on Integer Wavelet Transform and Genetic Algorithm. The novel scheme embeds data in integer wavelet transform coefficients by using a mapping function based on Genetic Algorithm in an 8 × 8 block on the cover image. The optimal pixel adjustment process is applied after embedding the message. We employed frequency domain to increase the robustness of our steganography method. Integer wavelet transform avoids the floating point precision problems of the wavelet filter. We use GA and Optimal Pixel Adjustment Process to obtain an optimal mapping function to reduce the difference error between the cover and the stego-image and to increase the hiding capacity with low distortions respectively. Simulation results show that the novel scheme outperforms adaptive steganography technique based on integer wavelet transform in term of peak signal to noise ratio and capacity, 35.17 dB and 50% respectively.