Full Length Research Paper

On the accuracy of hiding information metrics: Counterfeit protection for education and important certificates

A. K. Hmood, Z. M. Kasirun, H. A. Jalab, G. M. Alam, A. A. Zaidan and B. B. Zaidan

¹Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

²Faculty of Engineering, Multimedia University, 63100 Cyberjaya, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia.

³Faculty of Education, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: gazi.alam@um.edu.my, gazimalamb@yahoo.com. Tel: + 603-7967 5077. Fax: + 603-7967 5010.

Accepted 13 July, 2010.

Abstract

There are two techniques used to hide information - one is steganography while the other is digital watermarking. The objective of this paper is to investigate the functionality and reliability of using the current metrics, which are used to measure the distortion caused by secret data embedding. These metrics are used to measure the quality of the steganographic or watermarked objects. The signal-to-noise ratio, peak signal-to-noise ratio, mean square error, root mean square error, histogram and human vision test are the current measurements for the steganographic object. The paper will also discuss the widely used metrics and their limitations. Apart from this, it will also look at how researchers have criticized the metrics and how these metrics are used to measure the quality of steganographic or watermarked objects.

Key words: Steganography, digital watermarking, SNR, PSNR, MSE, RMSE, histogram, human vision, quality metrics.