A Reversible Approach for Information Hiding in Dual Images

Dual-image techniques have often been used recently. When hiding the secret data, these techniques copy a cover image into two similar stego images to enhance the overall embedding capacity. Furthermore, a dual-image-based hiding scheme can increase the security of the secret message. Without two stego images being simultaneously obtained, it is impossible for illegal persons to extract the complete secret message. In the proposed  Least Significant Bit Matching algorithm (LSBM) is used to embed the secret bits into the dual images alternatively two bits in each of the two by matching Least Significant Bit (LSB) of the pixel values, that results in alteration of the pixel values by +1 and -1. During extraction, LSB Matching algorithm has been used to restore the confidential messages and averaging technique has been used to restore the original image with same characteristics. The embedding capacity is high because in each pixel value the identical secret bits are embedded with more complexity and enhanced security. The performance of the proposed system is evaluated using the quality metrics like Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR) and Execution time.