LAUSR

Based on the NEQR representation of quantum images and least significant bit (LSB) scheme, a novel quantum image steganography scheme is proposed. The sizes of the cover image and the original information image are assumed to be 4n × 4n and n × n, respectively. Firstly, the bit-plane scrambling method is used to scramble the original information image. Then the scrambled information image is expanded to the same size of the cover image by using the key only known to the operator. The expanded image is scrambled to be a meaningless image with the Arnold scrambling. The embedding procedure and extracting procedure are carried out by K1 and K2 which are under control of the operator. For validation of the presented scheme, the peak-signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR), the capacity, the security of the images and the circuit complexity are analyzed.