Smart bit manipulation for K bit encoded hiding in K-1 pixel bits

Due to the technological advancements and menace of hacking, security has become the most important criterion in all fields. In order to achieve high information security in this regard, a method called steganography is employed. Steganography is the science of embedding data in any cover object without causing any discrepancy in the cover. In this paper, a novel information hiding method has been proposed using image steganography in spatial domain to improve the security and the payload in a gray scale image. In the proposed method, the maximum number of bits that has to be altered is two for embedding three bits in a pixel. It is also found that the proposed method has improved capacity with good imperceptibility.