Data Hiding in Computer-Generated Stained Glass Images and Its Applications to Information Protection

Abstract

The two issues of art image creation and data hiding are integrated into one and solved by a single approach in this study. An automatic method for generating a new type of computer art, called stained glass image, which imitates the stained-glass window picture, is proposed. The method is based on the use of a tree structure for region growing to construct the art image. Also proposed is a data hiding method which utilizes a general feature of the tree structure, namely, number of tree nodes, to encode the data to be embedded. The method can be modified for uses in three information protection applications, namely, covert communication, watermarking, and image authentication. Besides the artistic stego-image content which may distract the hacker's attention to the hidden data, data security is also considered by randomizing both the input data and the seed locations for region growing, yielding a stego-image which is robust against the hacker's attacks. Good experimental results proving the feasibility of the proposed methods are also included.

Stripe-Based Futurism-like Image—A New Type of Art and Its Application to Covert Communication

“…The width of the stripe will affect the appearance of the image. The wider the stripes are created in the regions, the stronger the dynamic effect appearing in the image, and So far, there are only a few studies on data hiding via art images, such as the stainedglass image investigated by Hung et al [14], the line-based Cubism-like image explored by Liu and Tsai [9], the tile mosaic image proposed by Hung et al [15], and the rectanglebased Neo-Plasticism-like image studied by Liu et al [5]. The techniques used by these investigations and the results yielded by them are compared in this study with those of the proposed method (implemented by Algorithm 2) in a qualitative way, as shown in Table 5 below.…”

“…Hung et al [14] created a type of stained-glass art image, and embedded a message into a cover art image for information protection by changing the number of nodes in the 4), as well as their difference (shown as the gray line chart).…”

“…In the history of Western art [1], different periods and thoughts lead to the creations of different art schools. In addition, many methods that use computer programs for the automatic creation of art images have been proposed in the past decades [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]. The aim of these methods is to make an artificially generated image look like a traditional artistic painting.…”