A generalized pixel value ordering data hiding with adaptive embedding capability

In this paper, we proposed an improvisation to Li et al.’s pixel value ordering (PVO) method and called it as generalized PVO (GePVO), which provides a suitable expansion strategy using the image redundancy more abundantly. GePVO makes use of a reference pixel and calculates prediction errors using both sides of the block in different modes (one-way GePVO, bidirectional GePVO, round-trip GePVO). The experimental results demonstrate that GePVO had better performance in terms of an increased embedding capacity compared to the other data hiding methods. When compared to Li et al.’s method, the bidirectional GePVO led to an increase in the embedding capacity by 1.8 times and the round-trip GePVO by three times. We contend that the GePVO method made the PVO method more flexible and unbound in terms of embedding capacity while keeping the image quality intact. Performance comparison with other reversible data hiding schemes is presented to demonstrate the validity of the proposed method.