Authenticable reversible data hiding scheme with less distortion in dual stego-images

In reversible data hiding, dual image-based data hiding methods are recently proposed, in which two stego-images are generated after embedding the secret data. In this paper, a new reversible data hiding method is proposed to provide less distortion and integrity of forgery modification in dual stego-images. The modulus function is used to generate four pixel pairs in a sub-block of the cover image. The gap function is used to obtain two pixel pairs from four pixel pairs to maintain less distortion, and the parity bit function is applied to prevent forgery modification attack from the unauthorized party. On the receiver side, the secret data can be extracted and the cover image can be also recovered from the dual stego-images. The experimental results show that the proposed method has strength on embedding capacity and visual image quality.