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Quantum image steganography algorithm based on modified exploiting modification direction embedding

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Abstract

A novel quantum steganography scheme is investigated based on efficient embedding algorithm of modified exploiting modification direction in this paper, which embeds two \( 2^{n} \times 2^{n} \) binary images (secret information) into a \( 2^{n} \times 2^{n} \) color image (carrier image). To improve the security of the secret information and enhance the robustness of the proposed scheme, a \( 2^{n} \times 2^{n} \) binary image (secret key) is generated according to the exclusive or operation of two secret images. The secret key acts as the control key of choosing two channels from the carrier image’s three channels of R, G and B (i.e., R, G or R, B channels chose as the pixel-group) to hide the secret information. In addition, the effective quantum circuits for investigated quantum steganography scheme are illustrated to better understanding the procedure of embedding algorithm. The experiment results simulated on the classical computer with MATLAB environment, and the numerical analyses demonstrate that the presented algorithm has good performance on imperceptibility and security.

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the National Key R&D Plan under Grant No. 2018YFC1200200 and 2018YFC1200205, and Scientific Research Fund of Hunan Provincial Education Department under Grant No. 18B420.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Information Engineering, Shanghai Maritime University, Shanghai, 201306, China

    Wen-Wen Hu, Ri-Gui Zhou, Xing-Ao Liu, Jia Luo & Gao-Feng Luo

  2. Research Center of Intelligent Information Processing and Quantum Intelligent Computing, Shanghai Maritime University, Shanghai, 201306, China

    Wen-Wen Hu, Ri-Gui Zhou, Xing-Ao Liu, Jia Luo & Gao-Feng Luo

  3. College of Information Engineering, Shaoyang University, Hunan, 422000, China

    Gao-Feng Luo

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  1. Wen-Wen Hu
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  2. Ri-Gui Zhou
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  3. Xing-Ao Liu
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  4. Jia Luo
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  5. Gao-Feng Luo
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Correspondence to Ri-Gui Zhou.

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Hu, WW., Zhou, RG., Liu, XA. et al. Quantum image steganography algorithm based on modified exploiting modification direction embedding. Quantum Inf Process 19, 137 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11128-020-02641-5

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