# A Model and Quantitative Framework for Evaluating Iterative Steganography
## 4 Results
### Example 2  
For experiment No. 2, video steganogram No. 2 was selected. This steganogram was encoded using five different encoding levels, each corresponding to a varying degree of alteration to the original cover. A higher encoding level result in greater the modification to the cover, leading to increased information capacity--the amount of information that can be encoded in the steganogram--but also reduced imperceptibility, resulting in a more noticeable difference between the steganogram and the original cover. Table 2 illustrates the process of incremental information gain in the decoded message over the first ten iterations for video steganogram No. 2, encoded at five different encoding levels. With each decoding iteration, as the amount of information extracted from the steganogram increases, the QR code representing the message becomes progressively clearer. This corresponds to an increase in the value of the \(IIF\) function, which, after a specific number of iterations, reaches the characteristic value, \(chIIF^{s}\), enabling the message to be fully decoded. Each cell in the table contains a black and white image of a QR code representing the decoded message, along with the corresponding \(IIF\) value for that iteration of the decoded steganogram. Table 2 clearly demonstrates a positive correlation between the \(IIF\) and the amount of information decoded from the steganogram: the higher the \(IIF\) value, the more information can be extracted. Cells highlighted in yellow mark iterations where the amount of decoded information allowed automatic recognition of the QR code content, facilitating retrieval of the encoded message. The first yellow-highlighted cell for each encoding level determines the characteristic value, \(chIIF^{s}\). Figure 1: Plots of the functions \(IIF_{(0,0)}\), \(IIF_{(1,1)}\), \(IIF_{(0,1)}\), \(IIF_{(1,0)}\), and \(IIF\) for video steganogram No. 1. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c} \hline \hline
**Iteration** & **Level 1** & **Level 2** & **Level 3** & **Level 4** & **Level 5** \\ \hline
1 & & & & & \\  & IIF = 0.636 & IIF = 0.672 & IIF = 0.716 & IIF = 0.772 & IIF = 0.802 \\
2 & & & & & \\  & IIF = 0.627 & IIF = 0.669 & IIF = 0.727 & IIF = 0.796 & IIF = 0.838 \\
3 & & & & & \\  & IIF = 0.617 & IIF = 0.667 & IIF = 0.735 & IIF = 0.812 & IIF = 0.858 \\
4 & & & & & \\  & IIF = 0.607 & IIF = 0.662 & IIF = 0.740 & IIF = 0.821 & IIF = 0.871 \\
5 & & & & & \\  & IIF = 0.598 & IIF = 0.661 & IIF = 0.750 & IIF = 0.840 & IIF = 0.890 \\
6 & & & & & \\  & IIF = 0.593 & IIF = 0.664 & IIF = 0.760 & IIF = 0.852 & IIF = 0.901 \\
8 & & & & & \\  & IIF = 0.585 & IIF = 0.661 & IIF = 0.760 & IIF = 0.854 & IIF = 0.903 \\
9 & & & & & \\  & IIF = 0.587 & IIF = 0.664 & IIF = 0.769 & IIF = 0.864 & IIF = 0.909 \\
10 & & & & & \\  & IIF = 0.587 & IIF = 0.669 & IIF = 0.777 & IIF = 0.873 & IIF = 0.919 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 2: Incremental increase in information in the initial iterations for video steganogram No. 2. Figure 2, which corresponds to the results presented in Table 2, shows the plots of the \(IIF\) across the full range of decoded iterations for video steganogram No. 2, encoded at five different encoding levels. The \(IIF\) plots highlight the points where for each steganogram, the \(IIF\) attains the characteristic value, \(chIIF^{s}\), and indicates the characteristic value, \(chIteration^{s}\), representing the iteration at which \(chIIF^{s}\) is reached. Figure 2 shows the graphs of five \(IIF\) functions corresponding to five versions of a steganogram No. 2, each encoded at different encoding levels. These levels range from encoding level 1, depicted in the lightest color and representing the minimal changes introduced to the steganogram by the encoding function, to encoding level 5, depicted in the darkest color and corresponding to the highest level of changes applied.