A Novel Approach to a High Capacity Data Hiding in Digital Images

This article suggests a method of data hiding taking use of matrix operations with the aim of bringing an increase to data hiding capacity. In order to realize such an objective a 4 times 4 matrix Key with its members being the digits 1, 2, and 3, is used in the way that a 4 times 4 block of the host image and 4 bytes out of the message are turned into a 4 times 4 matrix with 2-bit members and after they have been combined with each other, the 4 times 4 matrix with one-bit members shall be worked out in the way that the product of its multiplication by the Key is the same or nearly the same as matrix resulting from the combination. In this way, a change by n bits in the host image shall provide after the placement of one-bit matrix members at the least significant bits of pixels of the host image, shall provide for data hiding by 2n bits in it. Experiments have been indicative of the fact that there are proper capacity, complexity, visibility and undetectability indicators in this method in addition to a high flexibility and the possibility for combination of the method with other methods. However, the presence of error and low robustness are major disadvantages of the method.