XtoE: A Novel Constructive and Camouflaged Adaptive Data Hiding and Image Encryption Scheme for High Dynamic Range Images

High dynamic range (HDR) image data hiding and encryption has attracted much interest in recent years due the benefits of providing high quality realistic images and versatile applications, such as copyright protection, data integrity, and covert communication. In this paper, we propose a novel constructive and camouflaged adaptive data hiding and image encryption scheme for HDR images. Our algorithm disguises hidden messages when converting an original OpenEXR format to the RGBE encoding, which contains the Red, Green, and Blue color channels and an exponent E channel. During the conversion process, we determine an optimal base for each pixel by considering the user’s demands and the exponent E channel information to achieve adaptive message concealment. To prevent inappropriate access to the stego image, we perform the bit-level permutation and confusion using a 2D Sine Logistic modulation map with hyperchaotic behavior and a random permutation scheme with the time complexity of To the best of our knowledge, our algorithm is the first in HDR data hiding literature able to predict the image distortion and satisfy a user’s request for the embedding capacity. Our algorithm offers 18% to 32% larger embedding rate than that provided by the current state-of-the-art works without degrading the quality of the stego image. Experimental results confirm that our scheme provides high security superior to the competitors.