A new integrated steganography scheme for quantum color images

In this paper, we propose a quantum steganography scheme with a color image as the cover image. In order to enhance the security of the embedded information, Arnold disambiguation is first performed on the secret image, followed by embedding the three bits of the secret image in the cover image by using the DWT method in the R-channel of the cover image, the DCT method in the G-channel, and the LSB embedding directly in the B-channel. By performing the embedding of the secret image in each of the three channels, the embedding capacity and effect are significantly improved. In addition, the robustness of the embedded image is also greatly improved due to the use of three embedding methods. The average PSNR after image steganography is 54.33dB, and the average NCC for extracting the secret image under Gaussian noise and pretzel noise with an intensity of 0.02 is 0.96 and 0.98, respectively. Simulation and numerical analyses show that the algorithm performs well in terms of invisibility, security, and robustness.