HIGH RATE VIDEO STEGANOGRAPHY USING LSB REPLACEMENT

TECHNIQUE
MR. ROSHAN RICHARD DSOUZA
MTech student of ECE Department, Don Bosco Institute of Technology, Bangalore, Karnataka,
India
Email id : roshan.rdsouza6@gmail.com

MRS. RASHMI K.T.

Assistant Professor of ECE Department, Don Bosco Institute of Technology, Bangalore,
Karnataka, India
Email id : kt.rashmi@yahoo.com

ABSTRACT: Due to the tremendous use of internet and advances in technology over the many
years people are bothered about data being hacked and the concept of information security is
gaining the momentum. The information needs to be secured from illegal users to avoid undesired
actions. Steganography is a method of embedding the covert data inside the cover medium (text,
image, audio and video). Data security in which secret information is embedded in cover video is
presented is this paper. A method for formation of a stego video is defined using the Least
Significant Bit (LSB) algorithm. The secret information to be concealed is replaced at the LSB
positions of pixels of the cover video frame. Therefore it is extremely complicated for an intruder
to presume that data is hidden in the video and thus the data security purpose can be achieved.

KEYWORDS: Steganography, data hiding, LSB.

INTRODUCTION

Steganography comes from the Greek words Stegans(Covered) and Graptos (Writing). Because
of the use internet peoples life has become more easier to pay their bills, to buy commodities,
exchange important data between parties at long distances and many different things. The valuable
information should be secured from different threats and only the intended receiver has to receive
the data to have access for it. Steganography is the plan of hiding sensitive data or information
within something that appears to be nothing for normal human eye. By using Least Significant Bit
insertion (LSB) method on video frames, the size of the data embedded in video streaming can be
increased. Human Visual System (HVS) cannot recognize a slight change that happens in the
media cover[1].In cover media the message is embedded in such a way that only the sender and
proposed receiver have knowledge of the presence of the data, and the technique to regain it.
Image, text, audio can be the cover media. Data in the form of text, image and audio can be
embedded in the cover media. Image is the most commonly used carrier, but video can be used to
transmit much higher amount of secret data, instead of image.

Steganography scheme should take into account two main factors to successfully transmit and
retrieve intended information, that are embedding payload and embedding efficiency. High
embedding efficiency refers to good quality of stego data and less amount of host (carrier) data
and good quality of stego data are going to be changed [2]. The attacker's suspicion will increase
for any noticeable deformation and by some of the steganalysis tools the valuable data can be
easily detected[3]. Embedding efficiency factor gives more security to the steganography
scheme[4]. Second, the amount of secret information to be hidden inside cover media is large but
directly depending on high embedding payload. Embedding payload and embedding efficiency
factors comprise a sort of challenge between them. The capacity of embedding to have a low
payload is caused by increasing efficiency. Shifting the balance between two factors depends on
the users and the type of steganography scheme[2].

RELATED WORK

This section provides a review on different methods for steganography. LSB based video
steganography is presented in 2009 by Eltahir. In this technique the size of secret message into
the video frames is tried to enhance. By taking the LSB of all RGB color components (from Red 3-
bits of from Green 3-bits and from Blue 2-bits). A 3-3-2 approach has been used. Because of the
sensitive behavior of HVS to the blue color than the other two colors, 2-bits of blue color has been
taken. One third of overall video size by the hidden message is the result obtained by this approach
and considered as an enhancement of the LSB algorithm [4]. Motion vectors as carriers to embed
the secret data in H.264 video compression processing based novel video steganography is
proposed by Feng in 2010. To reduce motion vectors modification rate using linear block codes
(LBC) is the main principle used in this algorithm and good quality of stega data can be
obtained[5]. A novel video steganography method using matrix encoding based on a motion
vector is presented by Hao in 2011. Components of motion vector that has high amplitude among
to hide the secret message both horizontal and vertical components are selected, because a motion
vector component has high amplitude among both. When the object is moving gradually then only
HVS can see the changes, while the HVS will not be capable to experience the transform that
going to change if the same object moves quickly. For hiding the secret message, large size of
motion vectors are used[6].

DESIGN METHODOLOGY

The most important objective of our plan is to construct a algorithm that is capable to embed secret
message in digital video files, in particular in the images or frames extracted from the digital video
file (such as AVI files). Compared to other multimedia files, video based Steganography can be
highly secure because of its volume and complexity.

Video steganography
Video Steganography is a method to embed text,image,audio and video kind of files into a cover
video file. In the case of encoding technique, the cover video is referred to as the video in which
the secret data has to be hidden. As shown in figure 1, the cover video is separated into still images
or frames and saved separately as .bmp files. By using a appropriate algorithm the secret
information is hidden inside the frame by accessing a specific frame (image). To produce a stego
video, rest of the frames with modified frame (with data) is incorporated. At the decoding side to
regain the original secret data similar process is followed in the reverse manner. Stego video
frames are separated and from specific frames information is retrieved back in which it is hidden at
the sender side. Finally to obtain the original cover video the frames are again reassembled.

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 Fig.1: Video steganography block diagram.

3-3-2 based LSB replacement

The recommended algorithm is based on LSB (Least significant bit insertion) technique. The main
scheme of the suggested algorithm is by means of 3-3-2 approach. The least significant bits of
RGB colors (red, green and blue) in 24 bits image is essentially used by this approach.

Fig.2: RRR-GGG-BB based embedding technique.

To come up with 1 byte of data which will be used for data hiding ,the algorithm here takes the
least 3 bits of the red and green colors and only 2 bits from blue color as shown in figure 2.
Because of the fact that the HVS (Human Vision System) is more sensitive to the blue color more
than the other 2 colors, we only take 2 bits for the blue color by applying 3-3-2 approach.

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Therefore this approach is more pleasing to make the outcome image look visually the same as the
original image. For implementing steganographic algorithms, LSB replacement algorithm is used.
First the video is read and converted into frames. The carrier video frame is read and its pixel
values are converted into corresponding binary values. Next the secret data that has to be hidden
which is in the form of text, image and audio is converted into binary values and replaced at the
LSB positions of pixels of the carrier video frame. In this technique, 8 bits of secret data are
embedded in the least significant bits of pixel values of Red, Green and Blue planes of carrier
frames.

RESULTS

At the sender side, the proposed methodology for achieving end output is the formation of a stego
video which contains the secret data embedded in the cover video as shown in figure 3. Secret data
is extracted at the receiver side by splitting the stego video into frames. To increase the security
and complexity of the system the valuable covert information can be implanted in a single frame
of the video or in multiple frames. The technique should satisfy both imperceptibility and
robustness. The input is taken as digital video file and converted into frames as shown in figure 4.

Fig. 3: cover video.

Fig. 4: frame conversion.

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 Fig. 5: secret data Fig. 6: stego video

CONCLUSION

LSB replacement technique for data hiding has been implemented and tested for video
steganography. As shown in figure 5, embedding of text in cover video was implemented. With
this technique, by applying 3-3-2 approach one can pertain hidden data with added space better
compared to other steganography media. On the extracted set of the video frames the results were
successful as shown in the figure 6. Results showed that LSB technique is robust and requires less
computation time. Embedding the secret information in all the frames of the video with different
kind of algorithm will be the future work of this project.

REFERENCES

J. Pei Wun and H. Yuh Min Two improved data hiding schemes, in image and signal
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C. Yung Chen, T. D. Kieu and C. Chin Chen A high payload steganographic scheme based on
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Symposium on, 2008, pp. 16-21.
L. Shiguo, D. Yuewei and L. Guangjie An adaptive Matrix Embedding for image
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Internatinal conference on 2011, pp.642-646.
B. B. Zaidan, L. M. Kiah and M. E. Eltahir High rate video streaming steganography, in
information management and engineering, 2009, ICIME 09, International conference on, 2009,
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G. Yao, y. Xiao Yuan and P. Feng Video steganography using motion vector and linear block
codes, in software engineering and service sciences (ICSESS), 2010 IEEE International
conference on, 2010, pp.592-595.
W. D. Zhong, L. Y. Zhhao and B. Hao A novel steganography algorithm based on motion vector
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international conference on, 2011, pp.406-409.

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