Abstract
In this paper a novel reversible method for fast and safe image transfer is proposed. The method combines compression, data hiding and partial encryption of images in a single processing step. The proposed approach can embed data into the image according to the message size and partially encrypt the image and the message without changing the original image content. Moreover, during the same process the image is lossless compressed. Nevertheless, the compression rate depends on the upper bound of message size to embed in the image. The main idea is to decompose the original image into two sub-images and to apply various processes to each sub-image in order to gain space and increase the amount of embedded data. The two sub-images are then scrambled and partially encrypted. The most significant characteristic of the proposed method is the utilization of a single procedure to simultaneously perform the compression, the reversible data hiding and the partial encryption rather than using three separate procedures. Our approach reduces then the computational effort and the required computation time. This method is specially suited for medical images where one can associate the patient diagnostic to the concerned medical image for safe transfer purpose.