Towards Construction Based Data Hiding: From Secrets to Fingerprint Images

Area of Science:

• Digital Image Processing
• Information Security
• Cryptography

Background:

• Conventional data hiding techniques rely on modifying cover signals to embed secret data.
• Existing methods often require cover signals, limiting their application and potentially compromising security.
• There is a need for robust and secure data hiding methods that are independent of cover signals.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a novel construction-based data hiding technique that directly transforms a secret message into a fingerprint image.
• To develop a method that does not require any cover signals for data embedding.
• To ensure accurate extraction of the secret message and resistance to detection.

Main Methods:

• A secret message is mapped to a polynomial and encoded into points with different polarities to construct a spiral phase.
• A continuous phase is generated by decomposing a synthetically generated fingerprint image.
• The spiral and continuous phases are combined to form a hologram phase, which is used to create the final fingerprint image (grayscale, binary, or thinned).

Main Results:

• Experimental results demonstrate accurate extraction of the secret message from constructed fingerprint images of ordinary sizes.
• The proposed method successfully embeds secret messages without altering external cover signals.
• The constructed fingerprint images exhibit a high degree of difficulty in detecting the embedded secret message.

Conclusions:

• The proposed construction-based data hiding technique offers a novel and effective approach for embedding secret messages directly into fingerprint images.
• The method provides a secure and robust alternative to conventional data hiding techniques by eliminating the need for cover signals.
• The technique ensures accurate data retrieval and maintains a low probability of unauthorized detection.