Color interpolation is a form of upsampling, which introduces constraints on the relationship between neighboring pixels in a color image. These constraints can be utilized to substantially boost the accuracy of steganography detectors. In this paper, we introduce a rich model formed by 3D co-occurrences of color noise residuals split according to the structure of the Bayer color filter array to further improve detection. Some color interpolation algorithms, AHD and PPG, impose pixel constraints so tight that extremely accurate detection becomes possible with merely eight features eliminating the need for model richification. We carry out experiments on non-adaptive LSB matching and the content-adaptive algorithm WOW on five different color interpolation algorithms. In contrast to grayscale images, in color images that exhibit traces of color interpolation the security of WOW is significantly lower and, depending on the interpolation algorithm, may even be lower than non-adaptive LSB matching.

Date Published: 4 March 2015
PDF: 13 pages
Proc. SPIE 9409, Media Watermarking, Security, and Forensics 2015, 94090V (4 March 2015); doi: 10.1117/12.2078399

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 9409:
Media Watermarking, Security, and Forensics 2015
Adnan M. Alattar; Nasir D. Memon; Chad D. Heitzenrater, Editor(s)