Anjali A. Shejul

Bio: Anjali A. Shejul is an academic researcher from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Anantapur. The author has contributed to research in topics: Feature extraction & Feature (computer vision). The author has an hindex of 3, co-authored 8 publications receiving 119 citations. Previous affiliations of Anjali A. Shejul include Massachusetts Institute of Technology & College of Engineering, Pune.

A Secure Skin Tone based Steganography Using Wavelet Transform

Abstract: Steganography is the art of hiding the existence of data in another transmission medium to achieve secret communication. Steganography method used in this paper is based on biometrics. And the biometric feature used to implement Steganography is skin tone region of images (1). Here secret data is embedded within skin region of image that will provide an excellent secure location for data hiding. For this skin tone detection is performed using HSV (Hue, Saturation and Value) color space. Additionally secret data embedding is performed using frequency domain approach - DWT (Discrete Wavelet Transform), DWT outperforms than DCT (Discrete Cosine Transform). Secret data is hidden in one of the high frequency sub-band of DWT by tracing skin pixels in that sub-band. For data hiding two cases are considered, first is with cropping and other is without cropping. In both the cases different steps of data hiding are applied either by cropping an image interactively or without cropping i.e. on whole image. Both cases are compared and analyzed from different aspects. This is concluded that both cases offer enough security. Main feature of with cropping case is that this results into an enhanced security because cropped region works as a key at decoding side. Where as without cropping case uses embedding algorithm that preserves histogram of DWT coefficient after data embedding also by preventing histogram based attacks and leading to a more security. This study shows that by adopting an object oriented steganography mechanism, in the sense that, we track skin tone objects in image, we get a higher security. And simulation result shows that satisfactory PSNR (Peak-Signal-to-Noise Ratio) is also obtained.

A DWT Based Approach for Steganography Using Biometrics

Abstract: Steganography is the art of hiding the existence of data in another transmission medium to achieve secret communication. It does not replace cryptography but rather boosts the security using its obscurity features. Steganography method used in this paper is based on biometrics. And the biometric feature used to implement steganography is skin tone region of images [1]. Here secret data is embedded within skin region of image that will provide an excellent secure location for data hiding. For this skin tone detection is performed using HSV (Hue, Saturation and Value) color space. Additionally secret data embedding is performed using frequency domain approach - DWT (Discrete Wavelet Transform), DWT outperforms than DCT (Discrete Cosine Transform). Secret data is hidden in one of the high frequency sub-band of DWT by tracing skin pixels in that sub-band. Different steps of data hiding are applied by cropping an image interactively. Cropping results into an enhanced security than hiding data without cropping i.e. in whole image, so cropped region works as a key at decoding side. This study shows that by adopting an object oriented steganography mechanism, in the sense that, we track skin tone objects in image, we get a higher security. And also satisfactory PSNR (Peak-Signal-to-Noise Ratio) is obtained.

Comprehensive review on facial based human age estimation

Abstract: Recently facial based age estimation has become increasingly important because of many potential real time applications. Age estimation is predicting someone's age by analyzing his/her biometric trait such as bone density, dental structure or face. Amongst these face is important trait so facial based age estimation has become more popular due to its vast real time applications. Age estimation is defined as to label the face image automatically with the exact age or age group. Estimating age from images has been one of the most challenging problems within the field of facial analysis due to uncontrollable nature of the aging process, high variance of observations within the same age range, lighting, facial expressions, pose, occlusion, blur, camouflage due to beards, moustache, glasses, makeup and the difficulty to gather complete and sufficient training data. This paper presents analysis of earlier techniques proposed by researchers for facial based age estimation. Different feature extraction and estimator learning methods used in this domain are also discussed.

CDBN: Crow Deep Belief Network Based on Scattering and AAM Features for Age Estimation

Abstract: Automatic age estimation from the face images is a growing research interest nowadays. Various literature works have contributed towards the age detection scheme, besides only a few have resulted in providing good performance. This is due to the influence of the external factors, such as environment, lifestyle, and various expressions present in the face image. This paper proposes a deep belief network with the crow optimization algorithm for the age detection purpose. The proposed Crow Deep Belief Network (CDBN) finds the age of the person in the image through the initial training with the face features. The features for the training of the proposed CDBN are provided by the scattering transform and the Active Appearance Model (AAM). The training of the CDBN with the features provides the optimal weights used for the age detection. The experimentation of the proposed CDBN is done by four standard databases, namely the IMDB database, the Adience database, the AFAD database, and the FG-NET database based on the metrics, such as Mean Absolute Error (MAE), Accuracy of error of one age category (AEO) and Accuracy of an Exact Match (AEM). Among them, the proposed model has the minimum MAE with a value of 2.186 for FG-NET database, and maximum AEO and AEM with the values of 0.972, and 0.971, respectively for IMDB database.

Facial Based Human Age Estimation Using Deep Belief Network

Abstract: Facial based human age estimation has attracted lot of attention nowadays. Age estimation has become quite challenging task due to variation in lighting conditions, poses, and facial expression. Despite so much research in facial based human age estimation still there is room to improve performance. To improve accuracy we present age estimation using deep belief network. Deep belief network have shown superior performance as compared to other classification models. Success of deep belief network lies in contrastive divergence algorithm. Facial images passes though viola johns facial detection algorithm, once face is detected facial featured are extracted using active appearance and scattering transform feature method. These feature extraction model not only extracts geometric features but also extracts texture features. Subsequently deep belief network classification model is built on partitioned training images and evaluated on testing images. We performed experimentation on training images. Dataset and results are obtained by varying training percentages. Compared to other age estimation models we achieved low mean absolute error of 4.95 for 70% training images dataset. This study shows that due to inclusion of deep belief network performance is excelled.

An overview of steganography techniques applied to the protection of biometric data

Abstract: Identification of persons by way of biometric features is an emerging phenomenon. Over the years, biometric recognition has received much attention due to its need for security. Amongst the many existing biometrics, fingerprints are considered to be one of the most practical ones. Techniques such as watermarking and steganography have been used in attempt to improve security of biometric data. Watermarking is the process of embedding information into a carrier file for the protection of ownership/copyright of music, video or image files, whilst steganography is the art of hiding information. This paper presents an overview of steganography techniques applied in the protection of biometric data in fingerprints. It is novel in that we also discuss the strengths and weaknesses of targeted and blind steganalysis strategies for breaking steganography techniques.

An efficient filtering based approach improving LSB image steganography using status bit along with AES cryptography

Abstract: In Steganography, the total message will be invisible into a cover media such as text, audio, video, and image in which attackers don't have any idea about the original message that the media contain and which algorithm use to embed or extract it. In this paper, the proposed technique has focused on Bitmap image as it is uncompressed and convenient than any other image format to implement LSB Steganography method. For better security AES cryptography technique has also been used in the proposed method. Before applying the Steganography technique, AES cryptography will change the secret message into cipher text to ensure two layer security of the message. In the proposed technique, a new Steganography technique is being developed to hide large data in Bitmap image using filtering based algorithm, which uses MSB bits for filtering purpose. This method uses the concept of status checking for insertion and retrieval of message. This method is an improvement of Least Significant Bit (LSB) method for hiding information in images. It is being predicted that the proposed method will able to hide large data in a single image retaining the advantages and discarding the disadvantages of the traditional LSB method. Various sizes of data are stored inside the images and the PSNR are also calculated for each of the images tested. Based on the PSNR value, the Stego image has higher PSNR value as compared to other method. Hence the proposed Steganography technique is very efficient to hide the secret information inside an image.

A Secure And High Capacity Image Steganography Technique

Abstract: Steganography is the science of invisible communication. The purpose of Steganography is to maintain secret communication between two parties. The secret information can be concealed in content such as image, audio, or video. This paper provides a novel image steganography technique to hide multiple secret images and keys in color cover image using Integer Wavelet Transform (IWT). There is no visual difference between the stego image and the cover image. The extracted secret images are also similar to the original secret images. Very good PSNR (Peak Signal to Noise Ratio) values are obtained for both stego and extracted secret images. The results are compared with the results of other techniques, where single image is hidden and it is found that the proposed technique is simple and gives better PSNR values than others.

A Secure Color Image Steganography In Transform Domain

Abstract: Steganography is the art and science of covert communication. The secret information can be concealed in content such as image, audio, or video. This paper provides a novel image steganography technique to hide both image and key in color cover image using Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) and Integer Wavelet Transform (IWT). There is no visual difference between the stego image and the cover image. The extracted image is also similar to the secret image. This is proved by the high PSNR (Peak Signal to Noise Ratio), value for both stego and extracted secret image. The results are compared with the results of similar techniques and it is found that the proposed technique is simple and gives better PSNR values than others.