Reversible data hiding for color images based on complementary embedding

To avoid the drawback of difference histogram shifting algorithm which has lower capacity and image quality in multi-embedding, a reversible data hiding algorithm for color images based on complementary embedding is proposed in this paper. This algorithm uses the correlation of color components and the relationship between wavelet coefficients to decrease difference, so the peak of difference histogram is increased. The embedding scheme makes use of dual-histogram shifting method to increase the embedding capacity, and uses the reverse direction to expand the pixel value. The maximum expansion is 1, and some expansions cancel out each other. Experimental results show that the embedding capacity and the quality of stego-image are significantly improved compared with classical or other new algorithms.