A secure controlled quantum image steganography algorithm

A novel controlled flexible representation for quantum image(CFRQI) is firstly proposed in this paper based on flexible representation for quantum image (FRQI). The proposed CFRQI is able to effectively help the sender control the whole process of information transmission for better information security. Next, a novel secure controlled quantum image steganography algorithm is proposed by making full use of controlled access mechanism that comes with CFRQI. Compared with the previous quantum steganography algorithms, the new algorithm can make the sender control whether the receiver is enabled to correctly receive secret information or not for better imperceptibility. And it also can achieve better security by introducing the controlled access mechanism as an identity authentication system without the need of auxiliary information. Good applicability of the new algorithm is proved by the quantum circuits of embedding and extracting processes that are designed to implement. Furthermore, the new algorithm can effectively resist the phase-damping and amplitude-damping noises in quantum channel through theoretical analysis. Finally, the simulation experiment results are presented to prove our conclusions.