Performance Analysis of a Combined Cryptographic and Steganographic Method over Thermal Images using Barcode Encoder

Objective: Security of hidden data and the quality of the Stego image still is a challenge. This proposed research design implements Barcode encoder based steganography method that uses thermal images as cover image instead of often used colour images. Methods / Analysis: The data or text to be hidden is first encoded into equivalent barcode image. After the encoding process, the barcode image which has the original data is watermarked over a thermal image using improved Least Significant Bit (LSB) substitution process and generates distortion less Stego image. In reverse, De-Watermarking extracts and decodes the bar-coded data image from the Stego image to recover the original data. Findings: Use of both the barcode encoder for Cryptography and Thermal image for Steganography provides more security for the hidden data. Experimental outcomes of this research provide high performance on data security with improved PSNR and MSE. Application: Implementation of Thermal Image steganography can be utilised in Video data hiding with high data rate, thermal image to colour image conversion and temperature monitoring of power transformers.