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Enhanced halftone-based secure and improved visual cryptography scheme for colour/binary Images

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Abstract

Visual Cryptography (VC) is gaining attraction during the past few years to secure the visual information in the transmission network. It enables the visual data i.e. handwritten notes, photos, printed text, etc. to encrypt in such a way that their decryption can be done through the human visual framework. Hence, no computational assistance is required for the decryption of the secret images they can be seen through naked eye. In this paper, a novel enhanced halftoning-based VC scheme is proposed that works for both binary and color images. Fake share is generated by the combination of random black and white pixels. The proposed algorithm consists of 3 stages i.e., detection, encryption, and decryption. Halftoning, Encryption, (2, 2) visual cryptography and the novel idea of fake share, make it even more secure and improved. As a result, it facilitates the original restored image to the authentic user, however, the one who enters the wrong password gets the combination of fake share with any real share. Both colored and black images can be processed with minimal capacity using the proposed scheme.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, University of Engineering & Technology, Lahore, Pakistan

    Saleha Ahmad, Muhammad Faisal Hayat, Shahzad Asef & Yasir Saleem

  2. Department of Information & Communication Engineering, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Punjab, Pakistan

    Muhammad Ali Qureshi

Authors
  1. Saleha Ahmad
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  2. Muhammad Faisal Hayat
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  3. Muhammad Ali Qureshi
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  4. Shahzad Asef
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  5. Yasir Saleem
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Correspondence to Muhammad Ali Qureshi.

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Ahmad, S., Hayat, M.F., Qureshi, M.A. et al. Enhanced halftone-based secure and improved visual cryptography scheme for colour/binary Images. Multimed Tools Appl 80, 32071–32090 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-021-11152-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-021-11152-z

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