Hiding Information in Image by Compound Meta-Heuristic Algorithm PSO-SA

Abstract

Abstract-In this study a new method has been presented in order to hide secret information on host image, in a way that the image has been steganographed and has minimum difference to host image and is based on least significant bit (LSB). As security and quality are two main factors in evaluating steganography operation and LSB is a common method and is vulnerable against attacks and noises, researchers have set their priority on finding a substitution matrix in order to improve these two important factors and increase the system's efficiency. In this article, in order to find an optimal substitution matrix, a compound meta-heuristic method has been suggested which uses two optimization algorithms: Particle Swarm Optimization and simulated annealing. Results of simulation with two optimization algorithms PSO and SA and compound meta-heuristic algorithm PSO-SA have been comprised according to PSNR value and show that the stego-image produced by PSO-SA has more quality in comparison with other existing methods.