Edge-based Image Steganography using Edge Least Significant Bit (ELSB) Technique

Abstract

Image steganography is defined as a process of conceal a secret message into a larger media file. Medial files are ideal for steganography system since it has larger size and such media files are termed as audio, video and image. The advantage of steganography over cryptography is that the intended secret message does not attract attention to itself as an object of scrutiny. In this paper, the edge based image steganography system is developed using threshold selection and edge least significant bit technique. The main purpose of this system is to enhance the security and imperceptibility of the system. The proposed methodology constitutes of threshold selection, embedding process and extraction process. Initially, the edges are determined from the cover image by the edge detector. Here, the canny edge detection algorithm is utilized for edge selection with the aid of threshold selection. Thus, the edge pixels are obtained for the embedding process. Then, the secret message is entrenched into the edge pixel of the original image using the Edge Least Significant Bit (ELSB) technique which acquires the embedded image. At the receiver side, the secret message is retrieved from the watermarked image using ELSB technique. The experimental results are evaluated and performance is analysed with the parameters are Mean Square Error (MSE) and Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR). The outcome of the proposed system attains the higher PSNR of 78dB which ensures the security of the image steganography method.