A Novel Data Hiding Using Multi-Bit Minimum Error Replacement with Flexible Bit Location

The k-LSBs multi-bit minimum error replacement (MER) is a method used for embedding multi-bit logo/secret data into k least-significant bits (LSBs) of cover data only introduces minimum embedding error (MEE). However, the k-LSBs MER suffers from weak robustness. Moreover, it is unfortunate because no literature discusses the formulations and the properties of multi-bit MEE up to this day. Therefore, this work firstly establishes the formulations and the properties of multi-bit MEEs, we then use the results to develop a novel multi-bit MERs with flexible bit location embedding method (multi-bit MER_FBL embedding method). The proposed multi-bit MER_FBL embedding method embeds multi-bit (k-bit, k >= 1) logo/secret data into any adjoining (starting with the i(th) location) k-bit b(i)b(i-1)...b(i-k+1) of cover data only introduces MEE in the range of 0 to +/- (2k-1)2(i-k). Using the formulations and the properties of multi-bit MEEs, the MEE of multi-bit MER_FBL embedding method can be easily and determinedly evaluated. Because the proposed multi-bit MER_FBL embedding method has the feature of flexible bit location which enhances robustness as possible as the embedding location closing to the MSBs of cover data, we thus develop a mechanic of embedding threshold to evaluate robustness of the proposed method. We also developed a multi-bit MER_FBL embedding scheme based on the proposed method and then used it to build a novel multi-bit, invisible, and blind watermarking scheme to evaluate its performances. Final, simulation results show that the proposed multi-bit MER_FBL embedding method achieves high embedding capacity, good embedding quality, and can be high robustness for watermarking application.