Structural Quality Assessment of Edge Block Image Steganography with Improved Data Capacity

In this paper, an image steganography mechanism is being presented. In this method the improved strength of edge region detection and XOR coding are combined. This approach is used to cover a secret information in the original image. This steganography method is improved by concealing information in specific regions in an image, where the Human Visual System cannot recognize the small intensity change. Enhance XOR coding provides least possible bit alteration in steganography. This method helps in efficiently identify the threshold based edge block of input and stego image through local referencing of a non-overlapping block. In this algorithm, four bits of an input image is required to encapsulate a three bit secret data. While the generation of stego image, this coding mechanism allowed to change two bits from four bits of input cover image. The proposed mechanism conceals the data firstly on the sharp area of the input image and after that moves towards less sharp regions. The proposed method provides an improved data embedding capacity into the cover image. The capabilities of this method are verified by full reference quality assessment. Based on statistical analysis PSNR, SSIM, FSIM, RFSIM shows the effective results. The given algorithm offers an improved security in comparison of other steganography methods.