Reversible data hiding in JPEG image based on DCT frequency and block selection

The joint photographic experts group (JPEG) is the most popular format of digital image. In this paper, a novel reversible data hiding scheme based on JPEG image is proposed. In JPEG image, quantified DCT (discrete cosine transform) coefficients with different frequencies will yield different capacities and embedding distortions. To reduce the total distortion for the marked image, we select coefficients from frequencies yielding less distortions for embedding, and then an advanced block selection strategy is applied to always modify the block yielding less simulated distortion firstly until the given payloads are completely embedded. Experimental results show that the proposed method can keep good visual quality with small bitstream expansion. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.