Reversible data hiding based on run-level coding in H.264/AVC video streams

This paper presents a reversible data hiding (RDH) method, which is designed by combining histogram modification (HM) with run-level coding in H.264/advanced video coding (AVC). In this scheme, the run-level is changed for embedding data into H.264/AVC video sequences. In order to guarantee the reversibility of the proposed scheme, the last nonzero quantized discrete cosine transform (DCT) coefficients in embeddable 4x4 blocks are shifted by the technology of histogram modification. The proposed scheme is realized after quantization and before entropy coding of H.264/AVC compression standard. Therefore, the embedded information can be correctly extracted at the decoding side. Peak-signal-noise-to-ratio (PSNR) and Structure similarity index (SSIM), embedding payload and bit-rate variation are exploited to measure the performance of the proposed scheme. Experimental results have shown that the proposed scheme leads to less SSIM variation and bit-rate increase.