Spatial-domain image hiding using image differencing

A method to embed a secret image into a cover image is proposed. The method is based on the similarity among the grey values of consecutive image pixels as well as the human visual system´s variation insensitivity from smooth to contrastive. A stego-image is produced by replacing the grey values of a differencing result obtained from the cover image with those of a differencing result obtained from the secret image. The process preserves the secret image with no loss and produces the stego-image with low degradation. Moreover, a pseudorandom mechanism is used to achieve cryptography. It is found from experiment that the peak values of signal-to-noise ratios of the method are high and that the resulting stego-images are imperceptible. Even when the size of the secret image is about a half of the cover image