Title: Biometric image-based Image steganography and steganalysis using EQC-Net

Authors: Vijitha Gopinathan; Sargunam Balusamy

Addresses: Department of ECE, School of Engineering, Avinashilingham Institute for Home Science and Higher Education for Women, Coimbatore, India ' Department of ECE, School of Engineering, Avinashilingham Institute for Home Science and Higher Education for Women, Coimbatore, India

Abstract: In this paper, an efficient quantum convolutional network (EQC-Net) based framework for image steganography and image steganalysis is proposed. In the process of steganography, initially, a bitmap image is obtained from the input biometric cover image. Later, the secret message and key are XORed and applied along with the bit map image for generating the embedded image to different embedding techniques, such as discrete cosine transform (DCT), discrete wavelet transform (DWT), and least-significant bit (LSB)-based embedding. After the steganography process, the determination of the hidden message is done using steganalysis. To detect the secret information the embedded image is converted into a bitmap image by utilising the EQC-Net hybrid model. The evaluation of the EQC-Net shows that the bit error rate (BER) and peak-signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) achieved by the EQC-Net is 4.887 and 46.61 6dB for LSB-based embedding.

Keywords: efficient quantum convolutional net; bitmap image; embedded image; steganalysis; steganography; discrete cosine transform; DCT; discrete wavelet transform; DWT; least-significant bit; LSB; bit error rate; BER.

DOI: 10.1504/IJAHUC.2025.150221

International Journal of Ad Hoc and Ubiquitous Computing, 2025 Vol.50 No.4, pp.185 - 197

Received: 05 Feb 2024
Accepted: 25 Feb 2025
Published online: 03 Dec 2025 *

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