J. Electrical Systems 20-3 (2024): 1999-2006 1999 1 Nitin Kanzariya 2 Dr. Dhaval Jadhav 3 Dr. Lokesh Gagnani 4 Dr. Nilesh Maltare 5 Kamakshi Kaul A high-capacity Coverless Image Steganography Based on OMR and Mapping Rules Abstract: - Securing private information during its transmission over the internet is of paramount importance, as it safeguards against unauthorized access and guarantees the integrity of data. Steganography serves as a technique for enhancing security by concealing sensitive information within digital content such as images, videos, audio, and textual carriers, thus thwarting unauthorized interception. Current methodologies involve manipulating pixels to create stego-images, effectively embedding confidential messages within the image structure. However, this approach has led to steganalysis experts uncovering these hidden messages. To address this issue, an innovative strategy for covert data concealment is proposed. This paper proposes a robust, secure, and embedding capacity coverless image steganography method using OMR and Mapping Rules. The secret information is represented by a binary string, and the bubble sheet is used to represent binary fragments. This approach ensures the confidentiality of sensitive data communicated over the internet. Notably, this approach surpasses previous alternatives in terms of embedding capacity, as substantiated by result analysis. Furthermore, it is adaptable for refinement as needed. Significantly, it exhibits remarkable resilience, safeguarding against a spectrum of attacks including scaling, color space conversion, JPEG compression, thresholding, "salt and pepper" noise, file format conversion, and steganalysis tools, among others. Keywords: Coverless information hiding, Optical Mark Recognition (OMR), Image steganography, Machine Learning. I. INTRODUCTION All in a variety of industries, including network broadcasting, social production, and television, portable multimedia devices and 4G network apps are quickly gaining popularity. Information concealing is a secure communication method used in network broadcasting, social production, and television that uses encryption such as DES and RSA. Confidential information is encrypted by the sender and decrypted by the recipient using a key [1]. However, because of data processing and computer speed, this approach is vulnerable to hacking. Information concealing technology embeds hidden information that is difficult for attackers to decode by using human visual sensitivity and carrier signal redundancy [20]. The modifications made to the stego-image by image steganography algorithms, whether in the frequency or spatial domains, may be recognized by any detection system. Passive and aggressive steganalysis techniques can be used to identify payloads. Active techniques retrieve, alter, or tamper with the concealed message, whereas passive methods just reveal secret data. Artifacts including network transmission faults or picture alterations like filtering, scaling, file format conversion, noise, and data compression are among the unresolved issues in image steganography [2, 3, 4, 5]. In order to fundamentally resist steganalysis, Sun and other scholars propose a coverless information hiding scheme to resist steganalysis by establishing a mapping relationship between secret information and hidden carriers based on carrier characteristics. This unique anti-steganalysis ability prevents attackers from obtaining the information, even if they obtain the original carrier containing the secret information [1]. Although theoretical research and maturity are still in its early stages, coverless is a promising field with potential value. Similar to image retrieval, coverless image steganography techniques make use of images from a local database that has been pre-defined to represent the payload. These methods are not reliable since they are capable of handling some steganalysis tools but not all of them. They are unable to solve problems brought on either corrupted images or network transmission faults [1]. Based on an image's pixel values, features, or histogram, it is chosen to represent the hidden message. Part or the entire secret message is lost if image information is altered through steganography, modification, or network transmission fault. Due to fixed-length binary streams and the unequal distribution of chosen features in images, coverless image steganography algorithms have a limited embedding capacity. A novel coverless image steganography method is proposed to improve security, robustness against active attackers, and overcome challenges like network transmission errors and image manipulations. 1 * Government Polytechnic Himatnagar, Gujarat, India. nitinkanzariya5219@gmail.com 2 Vidyabharti Trust College of Master in Computer Application, Bardoli, Gujarat, India. jadhavdhaval@gmail.com 3 LDRP Institutes of Technology and Research, Gujarat, India. gagnani.lokesh@gmail.com 4 Government Engineering College, Modasa, Gujarat, India. nilesh.maltare@gecmodasa.ac.in 5 Vishwakarma government engineering College chandkheda, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. kamakshikaul@vgecg.ac.in Copyright©JES2024on-line:journal.esrgroups.org