Capacity enhancement of Hamming+k data hiding by pixel overlapping approach

A steganographic scheme, matrix coding based data hiding (MCDH), is constructed from covering function. MCDH may enhance embedding efficiency, and meanwhile decreases the number of modified bits. A we-known MCDH is based on Hamming code HC(n, n-k), i.e., using a covering function COV(1, n=2
^k
-1, k), referred to as Hamming code data hiding (HDH). Since then, HC(n, n-k)+1 DH (H1DH) was introduced, and it had a better embedding efficiency, when compared with HDH. However, both HDH and H1DH have demerit of small embedding rate. To overcome this problem, we adopt pixel overlapping approach, optimal pixel adjustment process (OPAP), and Least Significant Bit (LSB) substitution to construct the Hamming+k with m overlapped pixels DH (Hk_mDH). Experimental results reveal that the proposed scheme exhibits a good embedding rate compared with previous schemes. Also, the theoretical estimation of average mean square error for these Hamming-like DHS are given to demonstrate the advantage of our Hk_mDH.