Matrix embedding in finite abelian group

Matrix embedding (ME) is a well-known steganographic scheme that can improve the embedding efficiency of steganography. In ME, the sender and recipient agree on a matrix in advance, and the message will be embedded into the cover data according to the matrix. In this paper, we propose a general framework for ME based on covering sequence (CS) of finite abelian group. By the proposed approach, the to-be-embedded message is regraded as an element of a finite abelian group, and it can be embedded into the cover data according to a CS of the group. It can be verified that many previous works, including the conventional ME (binary and ternary) and the sum and difference covering set based steganography, are special cases of the proposed general framework. The proposed CS-based ME formally extends these classical algorithms, and it provides a general way for designing efficient steganography. Some examples of CS-based ME and their performance evaluation are also given for a better illustration. & 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.