{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,26]],"date-time":"2025-10-26T21:38:47Z","timestamp":1761514727333,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":38,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,2,25]],"date-time":"2021-02-25T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1614211200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Entropy"],"abstract":"<jats:p>In this paper we propose a novel transform domain steganography technique\u2014hiding a message in components of linear combination of high order eigenfaces vectors. By high order we mean eigenvectors responsible for dimensions with low amount of overall image variance, which are usually related to high-frequency parameters of image (details). The study found that when the method was trained on large enough data sets, image quality was nearly unaffected by modification of some linear combination coefficients used as PCA-based features. The proposed method is only limited to facial images, but in the era of overwhelming influence of social media, hundreds of thousands of selfies uploaded every day to social networks do not arouse any suspicion as a potential steganography communication channel. From our best knowledge there is no description of any popular steganography method that utilizes eigenfaces image domain. Due to this fact we have performed extensive evaluation of our method using at least 200,000 facial images for training and robustness evaluation of proposed approach. The obtained results are very promising. What is more, our numerical comparison with other state-of-the-art algorithms proved that eigenfaces-based steganography is among most robust methods against compression attack. The proposed research can be reproduced because we use publicly accessible data set and our implementation can be downloaded.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/e23030273","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,2,25]],"date-time":"2021-02-25T21:16:53Z","timestamp":1614287813000},"page":"273","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":13,"title":["Eigenfaces-Based Steganography"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"23","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1390-9021","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Tomasz","family":"Hachaj","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Computer Science, Pedagogical University of Krakow, 30-084 Krakow, Poland"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0646-3255","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Katarzyna","family":"Koptyra","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Cryptography and Cognitive Informatics Laboratory, AGH University of Science and Technology, 30-059 Krakow, Poland"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8298-8627","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Marek R.","family":"Ogiela","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Cryptography and Cognitive Informatics Laboratory, AGH University of Science and Technology, 30-059 Krakow, Poland"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,2,25]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"532","DOI":"10.3906\/elk-1801-131","article-title":"StegoGIS: A new steganography method using the geospatial domain","volume":"27","author":"Kurtuldu","year":"2019","journal-title":"Turk. J. Electr. Eng. Comput. Sci."},{"key":"ref_2","first-page":"1101","article-title":"PadSteg: Introducing inter-protocol steganography","volume":"52","author":"Jankowski","year":"2013","journal-title":"Telecommun. Syst."},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"4357","DOI":"10.1007\/s00500-018-3089-x","article-title":"Multiply information coding and hiding using fuzzy vault","volume":"23","author":"Koptyra","year":"2019","journal-title":"Soft Comput."},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Zakaria, A., Hussain, M., Wahid, A., Idris, M., Abdullah, N., and Jung, K.H. (2018). High-Capacity Image Steganography with Minimum Modified Bits Based on Data Mapping and LSB Substitution. Appl. Sci., 8.","DOI":"10.3390\/app8112199"},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"259","DOI":"10.18576\/amis\/100126","article-title":"High Capacity Image Steganography Technique based on LSB Substitution Method","volume":"10","author":"Mohamed","year":"2016","journal-title":"Appl. Math. Inf. Sci."},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"209","DOI":"10.14445\/22315381\/IJETT-V23P240","article-title":"A Spatial Domain Image Steganography Technique Based on Pseudorandom Permutation Substitution Method using Tree and Linked List","volume":"23","author":"Saghir","year":"2015","journal-title":"Int. J. Eng. Trends Technol."},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"66","DOI":"10.5815\/ijigsp.2015.05.08","article-title":"A High Capacity Secured Image Steganography Method with Five Pixel Pair Differencing and LSB Substitution","volume":"7","author":"Gulve","year":"2015","journal-title":"Int. J. Image Graph. Signal Process."},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Kasapba\u015f\u0131, M.C., and Elmasry, W. (2018). New LSB-based colour image steganography method to enhance the efficiency in payload capacity, security and integrity check. S\u0101dhan\u0101, 43.","DOI":"10.1007\/s12046-018-0848-4"},{"key":"ref_9","first-page":"1","article-title":"A New Image Steganography Method using Message Bits Shuffling","volume":"13","author":"Das","year":"2018","journal-title":"J. Mech. Contin. Math. Sci."},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"48","DOI":"10.5815\/ijigsp.2016.06.06","article-title":"Least Significant Bit and Discrete Wavelet Transform Algorithm Realization for Image Steganography Employing FPGA","volume":"8","author":"Shete","year":"2016","journal-title":"Int. J. Image Graph. Signal Process."},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"619","DOI":"10.1117\/12.587796","article-title":"Unitary embedding for data hiding with the SVD","volume":"Volume 5681","author":"Bergman","year":"2005","journal-title":"Security, Steganography, and Watermarking of Multimedia Contents VII"},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"54","DOI":"10.1016\/j.amc.2006.09.117","article-title":"On SVD-based watermarking algorithm","volume":"188","author":"Chung","year":"2007","journal-title":"Appl. Math. Comput."},{"key":"ref_13","first-page":"609","article-title":"An SVD oriented watermark embedding scheme with high qualities for the restored images","volume":"3","author":"Chang","year":"2007","journal-title":"Int. J. Innov. Comput. Inf. Control."},{"key":"ref_14","first-page":"717","article-title":"A Robust Steganographic Method based on Singular Value Decomposition","volume":"4","author":"Chanu","year":"2014","journal-title":"Int. J. Inf. Comput. Technol."},{"key":"ref_15","first-page":"1438","article-title":"Face Detection and Steganography Algorithms for Passport Issuing System","volume":"3","author":"Hingorani","year":"2014","journal-title":"Int. J. Eng. Res. Technol. (IJERT)"},{"key":"ref_16","first-page":"1","article-title":"Video Steganography for Face Recognition with Signcryption for Trusted and Secured Authentication by using PCASA","volume":"56","author":"Raju","year":"2012","journal-title":"Int. J. Comput. Appl."},{"key":"ref_17","first-page":"46","article-title":"New Generating Technique for Image Steganography","volume":"4","author":"Kadry","year":"2012","journal-title":"Innova Cienc."},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Sara\u010devi\u0107, M., Adamovi\u0107, S., Mi\u0161kovic, V., Ma\u010dek, N., and \u0160arac, M. (2019). A novel approach to steganography based on the properties of Catalan numbers and Dyck words. Future Gener. Comput. Syst., 186\u2013197.","DOI":"10.1016\/j.future.2019.05.010"},{"key":"ref_19","first-page":"1139","article-title":"A Novel Approach to Data Encryption Based on Matrix Computations","volume":"66","author":"Hassan","year":"2020","journal-title":"Comput. Mater. Contin."},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"McAteer, I., Ibrahim, A., Guanglou, Z., Yang, W., and Valli, C. (2019). Integration of Biometrics and Steganography: A Comprehensive Review. Technologies, 7.","DOI":"10.3390\/technologies7020034"},{"key":"ref_21","first-page":"168","article-title":"Image Steganography Techniques: An Overview","volume":"6","author":"Hamid","year":"2012","journal-title":"Int. J. Comput. Sci. Secur. (IJCSS)"},{"key":"ref_22","first-page":"989","article-title":"Steganography Techniques","volume":"5","author":"Surana","year":"2017","journal-title":"IJEDR"},{"key":"ref_23","first-page":"171","article-title":"Comparison of different techniques for Steganography in images","volume":"3","author":"Shelke","year":"2014","journal-title":"Int. J. Appl. Innov. Eng. Manag. (IJAIEM)"},{"key":"ref_24","first-page":"2650","article-title":"Comparative Study of Spatial Domain Image Steganography Techniques","volume":"7","author":"Rejani","year":"2015","journal-title":"Int. J. Adv. Netw. Appl."},{"key":"ref_25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Liu, Z., Luo, P., Wang, X., and Tang, X. (2015, January 7\u201313). Deep Learning Face Attributes in the Wild. Proceedings of the International Conference on Computer Vision (ICCV), Santiago, Chile.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICCV.2015.425"},{"key":"ref_26","unstructured":"Dalal, N., and Triggs, B. (2005, January 20\u201326). Histograms of oriented gradients for human detection. Proceedings of the 2005 IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR\u201905), San Diego, CA, USA."},{"key":"ref_27","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Kazemi, V., and Sullivan, J. (2014, January 24\u201327). One Millisecond Face Alignment with an Ensemble of Regression Trees. Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, Columbus, OH, USA.","DOI":"10.1109\/CVPR.2014.241"},{"key":"ref_28","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3","DOI":"10.1016\/j.imavis.2016.01.002","article-title":"300 Faces In-The-Wild Challenge: Database and results","volume":"47","author":"Sagonas","year":"2016","journal-title":"Image Vis. Comput."},{"key":"ref_29","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"328","DOI":"10.1137\/050637996","article-title":"Geometric Means in a Novel Vector Space Structure on Sysmetric Positive-Definite Matrices","volume":"29","author":"Arsigny","year":"2006","journal-title":"SIAM J. Matrix Anal. Appl."},{"key":"ref_30","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Huang, Z., Wang, R., Shan, S., and Chen, X. (2014, January 23\u201328). Learning Euclidean-to-Riemannian Metric for Point-to-Set Classification. Proceedings of the 2014 IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, Columbus, OH, USA.","DOI":"10.1109\/CVPR.2014.217"},{"key":"ref_31","unstructured":"Golub, G.H., and Van Loan, C.F. (2013). Matrix Computations, Johns Hopkins University Press. [4th ed.]."},{"key":"ref_32","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"153","DOI":"10.1137\/110852553","article-title":"Improved Inverse Scaling and Squaring Algorithms for the Matrix Logarithm","volume":"34","author":"Higham","year":"2012","journal-title":"SIAM J. Sci. Comput."},{"key":"ref_33","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1535","DOI":"10.1080\/01431160210142842","article-title":"Effects of JPEG compression on image classfication","volume":"24","author":"Lau","year":"2003","journal-title":"Int. J. Remote. Sens."},{"key":"ref_34","first-page":"707","article-title":"Binary Codes Capable of Correcting Deletions, Insertions and Reversals","volume":"10","author":"Levenshtein","year":"1966","journal-title":"Sov. Phys. Dokl."},{"key":"ref_35","unstructured":"Haldar, R., and Mukhopadhyay, D. (2011). Levenshtein Distance Technique in Dictionary Lookup Methods: An Improved Approach. arXiv."},{"key":"ref_36","first-page":"1","article-title":"A method of establishing groups of equal amplitude in plant sociology based on similarity of species and its application to analyses of the vegetation on Danish commons","volume":"5","year":"1948","journal-title":"K. Dan. Vidensk. Selsk."},{"key":"ref_37","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"519","DOI":"10.1364\/JOSAA.4.000519","article-title":"Low-Dimensional Procedure for the Characterization of Human Faces","volume":"4","author":"Sirovich","year":"1987","journal-title":"J. Opt. Soc. Am. A Opt. Image Sci."},{"key":"ref_38","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Almohammad, A., and Ghinea, G. (2010, January 7\u201310). Stego image quality and the reliability of PSNR. Proceedings of the 2010 2nd International Conference on Image Processing Theory, Tools and Applications, Paris, France.","DOI":"10.1109\/IPTA.2010.5586786"}],"container-title":["Entropy"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1099-4300\/23\/3\/273\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T05:28:14Z","timestamp":1760160494000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1099-4300\/23\/3\/273"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2021,2,25]]},"references-count":38,"journal-issue":{"issue":"3","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,3]]}},"alternative-id":["e23030273"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/e23030273","relation":{},"ISSN":["1099-4300"],"issn-type":[{"type":"electronic","value":"1099-4300"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2021,2,25]]}}}