Skip to main content
Log in

On the design of a two-decoding-option image secret sharing scheme

  • Published:
Multimedia Tools and Applications Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In an image secret sharing scheme (ISSS), two main categories are discussed. One is the polynomial-style image secret sharing scheme (PISSS), and the other is the visual secret sharing (VSS). It is interesting to combine the main properties of these two schemes. When the encoded secret images are received, we can decode them by combining these two schemes’ properties, utilizing the VSS property to seek the secret immediately by human visual system (HVS) and the PISSS property to recover the secret perfectly with a decoding machine. This paper combines PISSS and random grids-based VSS to remove all the drawbacks existing in the previous works including 1) distortion by compressing a secret image, 2) non-perfect reconstructed image, 3) distortion of pixel expansion, and 4) size-reduced halftone image. The experimental results demonstrate the proposed scheme does work well.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Ateniese G, Blundo C, De Santis A, Stinson DR (2001) Extended capabilities for visual cryptography. Theor Comput Sci 250(1–2):143–161

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  2. Chen TH, Tsao KH (2009) Visual secret sharing by random grids revisited. Pattern Recogn 42(9):2203–2217

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  3. Chen TH, Tsao KH (2011) Threshold visual secret sharing by random grids. J Syst Softw 84(7):1197–1208

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Chen TH, Lee YS, Lin CH (2016) On the difficulty of aligning VSS random grids. Signal Process Image Commun 44:101–107

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Cimato S, De Prisco R, De Santis A (2006) Probabilistic visual cryptography schemes. Comput J 49(1):97–107

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  6. Cimato S, De Prisco R, De Santis A (2007) Colored visual cryptography without color darkening. Theoretical Computer Science

  7. Devi ES (2010) Enhanced visual secret sharing scheme via halftoning technique. Proceedings of international conference on communication control and computing technologies, pp 769–776

  8. Elsheh E, Hamza AB (2011) Secret sharing approaches for 3D object encryption. Expert Syst Appl 38:3906–13911

    Google Scholar 

  9. Feng JB, Wu HC, Tsai CS, Chu YP (2005) A new multi-secret images sharing scheme using Largrange's interpolation. J Syst Softw 76(3):327–339

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Jin D, Yan WQ, Kankanhalli MS (2005) Progressive color visual cryptography. J Electron Imaging 14(3):033019

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Kafri O, Keren E (1987) Encryption of pictures and shaped by random grids. Opt Lett 12(6):377–379

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Lee YS, Wang BJ, Chen TH (2013) Quality-improved threshold visual secret sharing scheme by random grids. IET Image Process 7(2):137–143

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  13. Li P, Ma PJ, Su XH, Yang CN (2012) Improvements of a two-in-one image secret sharing scheme based on gray mixing model. J Vis Commun Image Represent 23(3):441–453

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Li P, Yang CN, Kong Q, Ma Y, Liu Z (2013) Sharing more information in gray visual cryptography scheme. J Vis Commun Image Represent 24:1380–1393

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Li P, Yang CN, Kong Q (2016) A novel two-in-one image secret sharing scheme based on perfect black visual cryptography. J Real-Time Image Proc:1–10. doi:10.1007/s11554-016-0621-z

  16. Lin SJ, Lin JC (2007) VCPSS: a two-in-one two-decoding-options image sharing method combining visual cryptography (VC) and polynomial-style sharing (PSS) approaches. Pattern Recogn 40(12):3652–3666

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  17. Lin CC, Tsai WH (2004) Secret image sharing with steganography and authentication. J Syst Softw 73(3):405–414

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Lin CH, Lee YS, Chen TH (2015) Friendly progressive random-grid-based visual sec ret sharing with adaptive contrast. J Vis Commun Image Represent 34:45–51

    Google Scholar 

  19. Liu F, Wu CK, Lin XJ (2008) Color visual cryptography schemes. IET Inf Secur 2(4):151–165

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Naor M., Shamir A. (1995) Visual cryptography. Proceedings of Advances in Cryptology: Eurocrypt94, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 950:1–12

  21. Shamir A (1979) How to share a secret. Commun ACM 22(11):612–613

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  22. Shyu SJ (2007) Image encryption by random grids. Pattern Recogn 40(3):1014–1031

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  23. Shyu SJ (2009) Image encryption by multiple random grids. Pattern Recogn 40(3):1014–1031

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  24. Thien CC (2003) An image-sharing method with user-friendly shadow images. IEEE Trans Circ Syst Video Technol 13(12):1161–1169

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Thien CC, Lin JC (2002) Secret image sharing. Comput Graph 26(5):765–770

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Yang CN (2004) New visual secret sharing schemes using probabilistic method. Pattern Recogn Lett 25:481–494

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Yang CN, Chen TS (2005) New size-reduced visual secret sharing schemes with half reduction of shadow size. Lect Notes Comput Sci 3480:19–28

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Yang CN, Ciou CB (2010) Image secret sharing method with two-decoding-options: lossless recovery and previewing capability. Image Vis Comput 28(12):1600–1610

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the anonymous referees for their valuable discussions and comments. This research was partially supported by Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan, R.O.C., under contract no. MOST 105-2221-E-415 -012 -.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tzung-Her Chen.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Chen, TH., Lin, KS. & Lin, CH. On the design of a two-decoding-option image secret sharing scheme. Multimed Tools Appl 77, 7865–7881 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-017-4680-3

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-017-4680-3

Keywords

Navigation