Robustness enhancement for image hiding algorithm in cellular automata domain

In this paper, we present a cellular automata (CA)-domain image hiding scheme that embedding a secret image into a gray-level image, in which an effective image preprocessor technique is introduced to improve the robustness of the secret image. The image preprocessor works by transforming a secret image into many elemental images based on the lensless integral imaging technique. The properties of data redundancy and distributed memory of the elemental images reinforce the ability to resist some data loss attacks. Besides, we study an improved pixel-wise masking model to optimize the imperceptibility of the stego-image. Experiments verify that the imperceptibility and robustness requirements of the image hiding are both satisfied excellently in the proposed image hiding system. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.