In this paper, by studying the encoding method of the discrete cosine transform (DCT) coefcients of joint photographic experts group (JPEG) image, and analyzing the relationship between the statistical properties of the DCT coefcients and coding length, we fnd that hiding data into DCT coefcients belonging to the mid-and-high frequency bands will lead to less fle size increment. Therefore, we propose a novel reversible data hiding (RDH) method based on the frequency selection strategy, in which the DCT coefcients of cover image are classifed into different groups based on their frequency bands, and the DCT coefcients of adjacent blocks belonging to the same frequency band are classifed into the same group. Thereafter, those groups with more zero coefcients are chosen preferentially for reversible data hiding. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed RDH method can not only lessen the fle size increase introduced by data hiding greatly, but also perverse the image visual quality well.
