Secret hiding using side match vector quantization

Since side match vector quantization (SMVQ) provides better image quality of reconstructed image and compression bit rate than vector quantization (VQ) does, it becomes another choice to compress the transmitting images when the bandwidth is limited. To expand the cover media for transmitting confidential information, we propose a novel data hiding scheme which embeds secret data into the SMVQ-compressed image. In terms of the payload capacity, the visual quality, and the compression rate, experimental results confirm that the performances of our scheme are better than that of other information hiding schemes for VQ-based and SMVQ-based compressed images. In addition, the embedded secret data can be extracted from the stego-image without referencing the original cover image.