Image Steganography Based on Local Variance

Abstract

In this paper, a simple and robust watermarking algorithm is presented by using the first, second, third and the fourth Least Significant Bits (LSBs). We embed two bits in two places out of four LSBs according to the local variance value. Compared to the simple LSB algorithm where we use bits 7 and 8 to embed information, the proposed algorithm is more robust to white noise and JPEG compression. Experimental results show that the quality of the watermarked image is high in terms of Peak Signal-to-Noise (PSNR) and Structural Similarity Index (SSIM).