Dual-image-based reversible data hiding scheme with integrity verification using exploiting modification direction

In this paper, a novel dual-image-based reversible data hiding scheme using exploiting modification direction (EMD) is proposed. This scheme embeds two 5-base secret digits into each pixel pair of the cover image simultaneously according to the EMD matrix to generate two stego-pixel pairs. By shifting these stego-pixel pairs to the appropriate locations in some cases, two meaningful shadows are produced. The secret data can be extracted accurately, and the cover image can be reconstructed completely in the data extraction and the image reconstruction procedure, respectively. Experimental results show that our scheme outperforms the comparative methods in terms of image quality and embedding ratio. Pixel-value differencing (PVD) histogram analysis reveals that our scheme achieves a higher security. Moreover, a tampered shadow can effectively be detected through the proposed scheme.