Abstract:  In order to solve the problem of less embedding quantity and image quality after a large amount of data embedding in reversible data hiding of color image, a high performance color image contrast enhancement algorithm based on reversible data hiding is proposed. In this algorithm, the original RGB image is converted into HSV(hue, saturation, value) image, in the preprocessing process, two bins with lowest height on the single side of pixel histogram are merged, and a distortion threshold is set to prevent image distortion; In the data embedding process, the hue component is maintained and the length of the secret information that a single pixel can embed is increased. Meanwhile, the image distortion is decreased. After several rounds of data embedding, the histogram is equalized, effectively enhancing the image contrast. Experimental results and analysis on Kodak and USC-SICI image sets show that compared with similar algorithms (UCE and HSP), the proposed algorithm improves the performance of embedding capacity and CIEDE2000 by 28.6% and 34.7% on average, respectively.