Varying radix numeral system based adaptive image steganography

A novel image steganographic scheme based on the primitive and renowned numerical model is proposed. In this adaptive scheme the data to be embedded is dissected into numerals, each having variable information carrying capacity. The dissection is based on the statistics of the host image pixels i.e. the amount of adulteration that a pixel can tolerate. The proposed method provides proficient visual quality despite high payload capacity. The experimental results evaluated on 300 natural images show that the new scheme is resistant to RS steganalysis and offers high visual quality when compared with typical LSB-based schemes as well as their edge adaptive versions, like pixel-value-differencing-based schemes. ► This paper contributes a novel image adaptive steganographic algorithm. ► It employs a new VRNS scheme for facilitating the image adaptive payload. ► It offers optimum payload capacity with minimum perceptual distortion. ► It is secure by resisting visual attack and some basic statistical attacks.