Abstract
High dynamic range (HDR) images have recently drawn much attention in multimedia community. In this paper, we proposed an HDR image steganography method based on deep learning, which is for HDR images with OpenEXR format. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first steganography method that applies deep learning to HDR image steganography, and the first steganography method that hides images in HDR images. The LDR secret image is hidden in the mantissa of the HDR cover image of the same size through a hidden network, and recovered through an extraction network in the receiver. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm has advantages in security, robustness and capacity compared with other “hiding image in image” algorithms.















Similar content being viewed by others
Explore related subjects
Discover the latest articles, news and stories from top researchers in related subjects.Availability of data and materials
Available when it is required.
References
Fridrich, J.: Steganography in Digital Media: Principles, Algorithms, and Applications. Cambridge University Press (2009)
JSteg [CP]. http://zooid.org/paul/crypto/jsteg/2009-8-5
Filler, T., Judas, J., Fridrich, J.: Minimizing embedding impact in steganography using trellis coded quantization. Proc. SPIE, Media Forens. Secur. II, 0501–0514 (2010)
Pevny, T, Filler, T., Bas, P.: Using high-dimensional image models to perform highly undetectable steganography. In: International Workshop on Information Hiding. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, pp. 161–177 (2010)
Duan, X., Li, B., Xie, Z., Yue, D., Ma, Y.: High-capacity information hiding based on residual network. Tech. Rev. IETE 38(1), 172–183 (2021). (Web)
Yang, J.H., Ruan, D.Y., Huang, J.W., Kang, X.G., Shi, Y.Q.: An embedding cost learning framework using GAN. IEEE Trans. Inf. Forens. Secur. 15, 839–851 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1109/tifs.2019.2922229
Zhang, R., Dong, S.Q., Liu, J.Y.: Invisible steganography via generative adversarial networks. Multimedia Tools Appl. 78(7), 8559–8575 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-018-6951-z
Zhou, Z.L., Cao, Y., Wang, M.M., Fan, E.M., Wu, Q.M.J.: Faster-RCNN based robust coverless information hiding system in cloud environment. IEEE Access 7, 179891–179897 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2019.2955990
Liu, L., Meng, L., Peng, Y., Wang, X.: A Data Hiding Scheme Based on U-Net and Wavelet Transform. Knowl. Based Syst. 223, 107022 (2021). (Web)
Baluja, S.: Hiding images in plain sight: deep steganography. Adv. Neural. Inf. Process. Syst. 30, 2069–2079 (2017)
Holub, V., Fridrich, J.: Designing steganographic distortion using directional filters. In: International Workshop on Information Forensics and Security, pp. 234–239 (2012)
V. Holub, J. Fridrich. Digital image steganography using universal distortion. Proceedings of ACM Information Hiding and Multimedia Security Workshop, 2013, 59–68.
Li, B., Wang, M., Huang, J., et al.: A new cost functions for spatial image steganography. In: Proceeding of 2014 IEEE International Conference on Image Processing, pp. 4206–4210 (2014)
Westfeld, A.: F5—A steganographic algorithm high capacity despite better steganalysis. Lect. Notes Comput. Sci. 21(37), 289–302 (2001)
Holub, V., Fridrich, J., Denemark, T.: Universal distortion function for steganography in an arbitrary domain. Euras. J. Inf. Secur. 2014(1), 1 (2014)
Wu, X., Yang, C.N.: Partial reversible AMBTC-based secret image sharing with steganography. Digital Signal Process. 93, 22–33 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsp.2019.06.016
Subhedar, M.S.: Cover selection technique for secure transform domain image steganography. Iran J. Comput. Sci. 4(4), 241–252 (2021). https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s42044-020-00077-9
Volkhonskiy, D., Nazarov, I., Borisenko, B., et al.: Steganographic generative adversarial networks. Inf. Hiding Multimedia Secur. 11433, 201–208 (2017)
Shi, H., Dong, J., Wang, W., et al.: SSGAN: Secure Steganography Based on Generative Adversarial Networks. Springer, Cham (2017)
Tang, W., Tan, S., Li, B., et al.: Automatic steganographic distortion learning using a generative adversarial network. IEEE Signal Process. Lett. 66(99), 1 (2017)
Hu, D., Wang, L., Jiang, W., et al.: A novel image steganography method via deep convolutional generative adversarial networks. IEEE Access 6, 38303–38314 (2018)
Baldi, P., Guyon, G., Dror, V., et al.: Autoencoders, unsupervised learning and deep architectures. Workshop Confer. Proc. 27, 37–50 (2012)
Baluja, S.: Hiding images in plain sight: deep steganography. Proc. Adv. Neural Inf. Process. Syst. (NIPS) 30, 2069–2079 (2017)
Rehman, A.U., Rahim, R., Nadeem, S., et al.: End-to-end trained CNN encoder-decoder networks for image steganography (2018)
Zhang, R., Dong, S., Liu, J.: Invisible steganography via generative adversarial networks. Multimedia Tools Appl. (2019)
Duan, X., Jia, K., Li, B., et al.: Reversible image steganography scheme based on a U-net structure. IEEE Access 7, 9317–9323 (2019)
Ronneberger, O., Fischer, P., Brox, T.: U-net: Convolutional networks for biomedical image segmentation.” In: International Conference on Medical Image Computing and Computer-Assisted Intervention. Springer, Cham (2015)
Cheng, Y.M., Wang, C.M.: A Novel Approach to Steganography in High- Dynamic-Range Images. IEEE Multimedia 16(3), 70–80 (2009). (Web)
Yu, C.M., Wu, K.C., Wang, C.M.: A distortion-free data hiding scheme for high dynamic range images. Multimedia Tools Appl. 32(5), 225–236 (2011)
Chang, C.C., Nguyen, T.S., Lin, C.C.: Distortion-free data embedding scheme for high dynamic range images. J. Electron. Sci. Technol. 01, 22–28 (2013)
Lin, Y., Wang, C., Chen, W., et al.: A novel data hiding algorithm for high dynamic range images. IEEE Trans. Multimedia 19(1), 196–211 (2017)
He, X., Zhang, W., Zhang, H., Ma, L., Li, Y.: Reversible data hiding for high dynamic range images using edge information. Multimedia Tools Appl. 78(20), 29137–29160 (2018). (Web)
Gao, X., Pan, Z., Gao, E., Fan, G.: Reversible data hiding for high dynamic range images using two-dimensional prediction-error histogram of the second time prediction. Signal Process. 173, 107579 (2020). (Web)
Bai, Y., Jiang, G., Zhu, Z., Xu, H., Song, Y.:Reversible data hiding scheme for high dynamic range images based on multiple prediction error expansion. Signal Process. Image Commun. 91 (2021). Web.
Ke, Y., Liu, J., Zhang, M.Q., Su, T.T., Yang, X.Y.: Steganography Security: Principle and Practice. IEEE Access 6, 73009–73022 (2018). (Web)
Technical Introduction to OpenEXR. https://openexr.com/en/latest/TechnicalIntroduction.html
Xiao, X., Shen, L., Luo, Z., et al.: Weighted Res-UNet for high-quality retina vessel segmentation. In: 9th International Conference on Information Technology in Medicine and Education (ITME), Hang zhou, China, pp. 327–331 (2018)
Goljan, M., Fridrich, J., Cogranne, R.: Rich model for Steganalysis of color images. In: IEEE International Workshop on Information Forensics and Security, Atlanta, GA, USA, pp. 185–190 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1109/WIFS.2014.7084325
Liu. Y., Lai, W., Chen, Y., et al.: Single-Image HDR Reconstruction by Learning to Reverse the Camera Pipeline. Proceedings of the IEEE Computer Society Conference on CVPR, pp. 1648-1657 (2020). https://github.com/alex04072000/SingleHDR
Narwaria, M., et al.: HDR-VDP-2.2: a calibrated method for objective quality prediction of high-dynamic range and standard images. J. Electron. Imaging 24(1), 010501 (2015)
Chen, F., Xing, Q., Liu, F.: Technology of Hiding and Protecting the Secret Image Based on Two-Channel Deep Hiding Network. IEEE Access 8, 21966–21979 (2020). (Web)
Van, T.P., Dinh, T.H., Thanh, T.M.:Simultaneous convolutional neural network for highly efficient image steganography. In: 2019 19th International Symposium on Communications and Information Technologies (ISCIT), pp. 410–15 (2019). Web
Lin, Y.T., Wang, C.M., Chen, W.S., Lin, F.P., Lin, W.: A Novel Data Hiding Algorithm for High Dynamic Range Images. IEEE Trans. Multimedia 19(1), 196–211 (2017). (Web)
Li, M.T., Huang, N.C., Wang, C.M.: A data hiding scheme for high dynamic range images. Int. J. Innov. Comput. Inf. Control 7(5), 2021–2035 (2011)
Liu, L., Meng, L., Peng, Y., et al.: A data hiding scheme based on U-Net and wavelet transform. Knowl.-Based Syst. 223, 107022 (2021)
Acknowledgements
There’s currently no acknowledgements.
Funding
There is no funding for this manuscript.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
Yongqing Huo gave guidance to the idea and experiments and is one of the main manuscript writers. Yan Qiao designed and conducted most of the experiments. YaoHui Liu helped to complete the experiments and revise some of the manuscript.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
There are no competing interests.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Supplementary Information
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Huo, Y., Qiao, Y. & Liu, Y. A deep learning-based steganography method for high dynamic range images. Vis Comput 40, 7887–7903 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00371-023-03214-0
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00371-023-03214-0