Secured Steganographic Scheme Utilizing Fuzzy Threshold with Weighted Matrix

Abstract

The idea of similarity measure, also known as entropy measurement, is used to discriminate between dissimilar objects. In many cases, mathematical, psychological, and fuzzy approaches have been utilized to explore it. Taking these principles into consideration, a new fuzzy threshold-based steganographic system is designed to choose pixel blocks for data embedding based on the degree of the pixel category. Then the secret data has been embedded through sum-of-entry-wise multiplication operation using predefined weighted matrix and selected pixel block. The secret data has been successfully recovered during the extraction phase using the required pixel range, fuzzy threshold, and weighted matrix, which are responsible for shared secret key to improve security and robustness. Finally, the proposed technique is tested using steganographic attacks and several types of analysis to determine its imperceptibility and robustness. Moreover, various experimental tests have been carried out to demonstrate the efficacy and effectiveness of the proposed method. From a security standpoint, it has been observed that unknown weighted matrix, threshold value and reference table have failed to retrieve the secret from watermarked image. The anticipated consequence highlighted certain outstanding magnificent aspects in the fields of image authentication, tamper detection, and digital forgery detection, all of which are essential to the technological life. This system benefits a wide range of government and business sectors, including health care, commercial security, defense, and intellectual property rights.