一种无损多秘密分享视觉密码方案

针对分享多幅秘密图像存在信息损失的问题,该文给出(n, n)无损多秘密分享视觉密码的定义,在此基础上基于环状共享份设计了一种(n, n)多秘密视觉密码方案,使秘密图像的信息损失为零。实验结果表明,该方案不仅实现了在多个参与者之间分享多幅秘密图像,而且秘密图像能够完全恢复。     

Flip visual cryptography (FVC) with perfect security,conditionally-optimal contrast,and no expansion

This paper proposes a flip visual cryptography (FVC) scheme with perfect security, conditionally optimal contrast, and no expansion of size. The proposed FVC scheme encodes two secret images into two dual-purpose transparencies. Stacking the two transparencies can reveal one secret image. Flipping one of the two transparencies and then stacking with the other transparency can reveal the second secret image. The proposed scheme is proved to have conditionally optimal contrast: its contrast is optimal if the double-secrets non-expanded FVC scheme is required to have perfect security. The perfect security is also proved.     

Sharing more information in gray visual cryptography scheme

Visual cryptography scheme (VCS) shares a binary secret image into several binary shadows, and the secret image can be visually revealed by stacking qualified shadows without computation. From the point of view of sharing secret information, VCS is not efficiency because of the large size expansion and low visual quality. In this paper, we introduce a general gray visual cryptography scheme, which can share more information, called Sharing More Information Gray Visual Cryptography Scheme (SMIGVCS). All the shadow pixels of VCS embed additional information to generate gray shadows of SMIGVCS, and the embedded information comes from the shadows of a polynomial-based secret sharing scheme (PSSS). In the revealing process, a vague secret image is visually decoded by stacking qualified shadows, and more information is revealed by computation. Compared with the two-in-one image secret sharing scheme (TiOISSS), our SMIGVCS can achieve smaller shadow size with acceptable visual quality.     

On the Contrast in Visual Cryptography Schemes

A visual cryptography scheme is a method to encode a secret image SI into shadow images called shares such that certain qualified subsets of shares enable the ``visual' recovery of the secret image. The ``visual' recovery consists of xeroxing the shares onto transparencies, and then stacking them. The shares of a qualified set will reveal the secret image without any cryptographic computation. In this paper we analyze the contrast of the reconstructed image in k out of n visual cryptography schemes. (In such a scheme any k shares will reveal the image, but no set of k-1 shares gives any information about the image.) In the case of 2 out of n threshold schemes we give a complete characterization of schemes having optimal contrast and minimum pixel expansion in terms of certain balanced incomplete block designs. In the case of k out of n threshold schemes with we obtain upper and lower bounds on the optimal contrast. Received 27 September 1996 and revised 13 February 1998     

多重门限的图像秘密共享方案

 针对传统的基于视觉密码的图像秘密共享方案存在像素扩张导致其只能共享小尺寸的秘密图像、信息隐藏效率较低的问题,提出一种能够提高信息隐藏容量的(t,k,n)多重门限图像秘密共享方案.该方案利用秘密图像信息控制视觉密码方案中共享矩阵的选取,从而实现秘密图像在视觉密码方案中的隐藏.在秘密图像恢复的第一阶段,任意t个参与者直接叠加其影子图像后可以视觉解密出低质量的秘密图像信息;在第二阶段,任意k个参与者可以从影子图像中提取出隐藏的信息,并通过计算恢复出精确的灰度秘密图像.相对于传统的视觉密码方案,本文方案在不影响视觉密码恢复图像的视觉质量前提下,可以隐藏更多的秘密图像信息,而像素扩张尺寸较小.     

小波域分存和软判决恢复的隐藏技术

研究了一种把小波变换和可视密码技术相结合的信息隐藏方案,实现对灰度图像的信息隐藏。该方案把经过Arnold变换处理后的秘密信息,按照k阶线性方程求解理论产生n幅分享图片,再把n幅分享图片应用离散小波变换信息隐藏理论,分存到n幅公开图片中。提取秘密图片时,必须要大于k幅公开图片才能获得秘密图片。实验结果表明,该方案具有很强的鲁棒性,而且秘密信息不容易丢失。     

Hiding color watermarks in halftone images using maximum-similarity binary patterns

This paper presents a halftoning-based watermarking method that enables the embedding of a color image into binary black-and-white images. To maintain the quality of halftone images, the method maps watermarks to halftone channels using homogeneous dot patterns. These patterns use a different binary texture arrangement to embed the watermark. To prevent a degradation of the host image, a maximization problem is solved to reduce the associated noise. The objective function of this maximization problem is the binary similarity measure between the original binary halftone and a set of randomly generated patterns. This optimization problem needs to be solved for each dot pattern, resulting in processing overhead and a long running time. To overcome this restriction, parallel computing techniques are used to decrease the processing time. More specifically, the method is tested using a CUDA-based parallel implementation, running on GPUs. The proposed technique produces results with high visual quality and acceptable processing time.     

Improving the visual quality of size invariant visual cryptography scheme

In order to reduce the pixel expansion of visual cryptography scheme (VCS), many size invariant visual cryptography schemes (SIVCS’s) were proposed. However, most of the known SIVCS’s have bad visual quality and thin line problems, hence the known SIVCS’s are only suitable to encrypt coarse secret images. In this paper, we notice that the variance of the darkness levels of the pixels also reflects the visual quality of the recovered secret image, as well as the average contrast. We verify, analytically and experimentally, the effectiveness of the variance to be a criterion for evaluating the visual quality of the recovered secret image. Furthermore, we propose two multi-pixel encryption size invariant visual cryptography schemes (ME-SIVCS’s) which improve the visual quality of the recovered secret image by reducing the variance of the darkness levels. In addition, the proposed ME-SIVCS’s can be used to encrypt fine secret images since they avoid some known thin line problems. Experimental results and comparisons are also given to show the effectiveness of the proposed ME-SIVCS’s. Finally, we give suggestions on obtaining good visual quality for the recovered secret image.     

一种共享份分块构造的异或区域递增式视觉密码方案

该文依据授权子集的个数将共享份划分若干块,按照共享份分块构造的设计思路,结合(n, n)异或单秘密视觉密码的加密矩阵,构造了异或区域递增式视觉密码的秘密分享与恢复流程。与现有方案相比,该方案可以实现解密区域图像的完全恢复,且明显减小了共享份的大小。     

Secret image sharing scheme with hierarchical threshold access structure

A hierarchical threshold secret image sharing (HTSIS) scheme is a method to share a secret image among a set of participants with different levels of authority. Recently, Guo et al. (2012) [22] proposed a HTSIS scheme based on steganography and Birkhoff interpolation. However, their scheme does not provide the required secrecy needed for HTSIS schemes so that some non-authorized subsets of participants are able to recover parts of the secret image. In this paper, we employ cellular automata and Birkhoff interpolation to propose a secure HTSIS scheme. In the new scheme, each authorized subset of participants is able to recover both the secret and cover images losslessly whereas non-authorized subsets obtain no information about the secret image. Moreover, participants are able to detect tampering of the recovered secret image. Experimental results show that the proposed scheme outperforms Guo et al.’s approach in terms of visual quality as well.     

具有掩盖图像的（2，2）可视密码方案

为解决传统可视密码像素膨胀及分存图像无意义等问题,文中提出了一个具有掩盖图像的（2,2）可视密码方案。方案中密图为黑白反色图像,利用半色调技术将两个灰度图像处理后的半色调图像作为掩盖图像,根据密图修改掩盖图像生成分存图像,叠加分存图像恢复密图。方案符合可视密码解密简单的特性且分存图像有意义,没有引入任何像素膨胀。     

Multi-factor cheating prevention in visual secret sharing by hybrid codebooks

Visual secret sharing, or the so-called visual cryptography, is a well-known scheme that encrypts a secret image into several meaningless share images, usually printed on transparencies, and decrypts as stacking some or all share images by the human visual system. More and more researches about visual secret sharing and its applications have been recently proposed. Unfortunately, the cheating attack in which malicious participants cheat the honest one(s) by forging a fake share image has existed. Since 2006, some cheating prevention schemes have been proposed but suffered from one or more disadvantages as follows: (1) maintaining extra share images used to verify the integrity of a share image prior to stacking, (2) introducing extra pixel expansion, (3) raising heavy computation cost, and (4) giving ambiguous cheating detection. In this paper, a multi-factor cheating–preventing scheme, aiming at exploiting the hybrid codebook to hide the additional verification images into the share images, has been proposed without suffering the above-mentioned deficiencies. Two-factor cheating–detection exploits the design of verification to both share images and stacked results to deter attackers’ cheating. The experimental results demonstrate the proposed scheme is feasible.     

(t,k, n) XOR-based visual cryptography scheme with essential shadows

Visual cryptography scheme (VCS) shares a binary secret image into multiple shadows, only qualified set of shadows can reveal the secret image by stacking operation. However, VCS suffers the problems of low visual quality of the revealed image and large shadow size. A (t, k, n) XOR-based visual cryptography scheme (XVCS) shares the secret image into n shadows including t essentials and n-t non-essentials. A qualified set of shadows contains any k shadows including t essentials. The revealing process is implemented by XOR operation on the involved shadows. In this paper, we propose a construction method for (t, k, n)-XVCS with essential shadows. The secret image can be revealed perfectly, and the shadow size is small compared with VCS. Theoretical analysis and experimental results show the security and effectiveness of the proposed scheme.     

基于误差扩散算法的（2，2）可视密码方案

为解决传统可视密码存在像素膨胀及分存图像无意义等问题,研究并实现了将黑白反色的密图嵌入到两个灰度图像的方法。通过采用对灰度图像进行预处理增加分存图像叠加后,黑色像素恢复的概率以及在误差扩散的过程中同时嵌入密图信息、适当降低白色像素恢复概率以及恢复黑色像素时随机选择修改其中一个分存图像的方法,有效地提高了分存图像的质量。方案符合可视密码解密简单的特性且分存图像有意义,没有引入任何像素膨胀。     

A blind watermarking algorithm based on fractional Fourier transform and visual cryptography

This paper presents a robust copyright protection scheme based on fractional Fourier transform (FrFT) and visual cryptography (VC). Unlike the traditional schemes, in our scheme, the original image is not modified by embedding the watermark into the original image. We use the visual secret sharing scheme to construct two shares, namely, master share and ownership share. Features of the original image are extracted using SVD, and are used to generate the master share. Ownership share is generated with the help of secret image (watermark) and the master share, using VC technique. The two shares separately give no information about the secret image, but for ownership identification, the secret image can be revealed by stacking the master share and the ownership share. In order to achieve the robustness and security, the properties of VC, FrFT and SVD are used in our scheme. The experimental results show that the proposed scheme is strong enough to resist various signal processing operations.     

多分存彩色图像秘密共享（2，n）方案

文献[2]中提出了一种基于异或（XOR）操作的彩色图像秘密共享（2,n）方案,简单易于实现,但恢复密图的效果较差。通过分析此方案,文章提出一个多分存的彩色图像秘密共享（2,n）方案,通过给用户增加分存图像的方法改善了恢复密图的质量。实验分析表明所提方案不仅取得了很好的恢复效果,而且保持了安全性和算法的简单性。     

Cheating Prevention in Visual Cryptography

Visual cryptography (VC) is a method of encrypting a secret image into shares such that stacking a sufficient number of shares reveals the secret image. Shares are usually presented in transparencies. Each participant holds a transparency. Most of the previous research work on VC focuses on improving two parameters: pixel expansion and contrast. In this paper, we studied the cheating problem in VC and extended VC. We considered the attacks of malicious adversaries who may deviate from the scheme in any way. We presented three cheating methods and applied them on attacking existent VC or extended VC schemes. We improved one cheat-preventing scheme. We proposed a generic method that converts a VCS to another VCS that has the property of cheating prevention. The overhead of the conversion is near optimal in both contrast degression and pixel expansion     

Cheating in (halftone-secret) visual cryptography: Analysis of blind authentication schemes

In visual cryptography (VC), cheating is an important security concern where dishonest participants will fool honest ones and make them accept a fake secret by providing fake shares. Share and blind authentications are two categories of cheating prevention, and the last one relies on the inherent robust of shares against cheating attacks. In the previous studies, cheating in VC only focuses on operating a ‘pixel block’ instead of a region of adjacent pixels. However, the well-known advantage of VC is to decode the secret image by using the human vision system (HVS), so it leads to a natural issue to reconsider cheating a region. In this paper, we formally address the binocular cheating attack (BCA) for a region to augment effectiveness of original cheating for a block. Finally, we demonstrate how to realize BCA by presenting non-trivial techniques against some blind authentication schemes, and further obtain implausible results. The BCA can also be applied to halftone secret.     

基于环形共享份的多秘密视觉密码

通过对秘密图像和环形共享份进行纵向区域分割,该文提出了相关矩阵组,并在此基础上设计了一种新的多秘密视觉密码方案。与现有的多秘密方案相比,该方案不仅实现了加密任意数量的秘密图像,而且在像素扩展度和相对差等方面有明显改善。     

Self-conjugate watermarking technique for halftone images

A novel method for hiding visual patterns in a single error diffused halftone image is presented called self-conjugate error diffusion (SCED). The hidden patterns appear on the halftone image when the halftone image is folded or is overlapped with its own rotated version. Simulation results show that the halftone images have good visual quality and the hidden pattern is clearly visible.