VISUAL

CRYPTOGRAPHY

Cryptography

It is the practice and study of techniques forsecure communicationin the presence

parties (calledadversaries).
Process of Cryptography

Plain Text/image

Encryption

Plain Text /image

Decryption

Cipher

Channel

of third

Visual Cryptography
o

Visual cryptographyis acryptographictechnique which allows visual

information (pictures, text, etc.) to be encrypted in such a way that
decryption becomes a mechanical operation that does not require a
computer.

Visual cryptography was pioneered by Moni Naor and Adi Shamir in 1994

Visual Cryptography
o
o
o
o

Here plaintext is as an image.

Encryption involves creating shares of the image which in a sense
will be a piece of the image.
Give of the shares to the respective holders.
Decryption involving bringing together the an appropriate
combination and the human visual system.

Secret sharing in Visual Cryptography

Suppose the data D is divided into n shares
o

D can be constructed from any k shares out of n

Complete knowledge of k-1 shares reveals no information about D

k of n shares is necessary to reveal secret data.

Secret sharing in Visual Cryptography

o

Refers to a method of sharing a secret to a group of participants.

Dealer provides a transparency to each one of the n users.

Any k of them can see the secret by stacking their transparencies, but any k-1
of them gain no information about it.

Main result includes the practical implementations for small values of k and n.

Secret sharing in Visual Cryptography

Visual Cryptography technique is a visualsecret sharingscheme, where

an image was broken up intonshares so that only someone with allnshares
could decrypt the image, while anyn 1shares revealed no information
about
the original image. Each share was printed on a separate transparency, and
decryption was performed by overlaying the shares. When allnshares were
overlaid, the original image would appear.

OVERVIEW OF Visual Cryptography

Share1

Stacking the share

reveals the secret

Share2

Encryption

Decryption

Visual Cryptography

How does 2x2 scheme work?

o

Pixels in the image are either white or black

We sub-divide each pixel into four smaller sub-pixels. We need to shade these
four subpixels to represent the source image, then subjectively divide them
between the two cypher images we are to create.

Look at the color of each pixel in the original source image. If the original
pixel in the image is set (black), we fill in all four sub pixels then distribute
them two per cypher layer.

Flip a coin to determine which pattern we place on which layer (so that it is
random). It does not matter which pair of pixels goes on which layer, when
they are combined, all four pixels will be black.

Source Pixel Black

Source Pixel White

2 out of 2 Scheme (4 sub pixels)

Each pixel encoded as

a

2x2 cell

in

two shares

Each share has 2 black, 2 white sub pixels

When stacked, shares combine to

Solid
Half

black

black (seen as gray)

2 out of 2 Scheme (4 sub pixels)

6

ways to place two black subpixels in the 2 x 2 square

2 out of 2 Scheme (4 sub pixels)

Horizontal shares

Vertical shares

Diagonal shares

2 out of 2 Scheme (4 sub pixels)

EXAMPLE OF TWO-OUT-OF-TWO VC SCHEME:

Previous Example:

The secret image (a) is encoded into (b) & (c) two shares and

(d ) is decoded by superimposing these two shares with 50% loss of contrast.

The decoded image is identified, although some contrast loss is observed.

Due to pixel expansion the width of the decoded image is twice as that of the original
image.

Advantages

Simple to implement, Such a technique thus would be lucrative for

defense and security.

o

Decryption algorithm not required (Use a human Visual System). So a

person unknown to cryptography can decrypt the message.

We can send cipher text through FAX or E-MAIL.

Lower computational cost since the secret message is recognized only by

human eyes and not cryptographically computed.

Disadvantages
o

The contrast of the reconstructed image is not maintained.

Perfect alignment of the transparencies is troublesome.

Due to pixel expansion the width of the decoded image is twice as that
of the original image. Leads to loss of information due to change in
aspect ratio.

Its original formulation is restricted only to binary images. Additional

processing is required for colored images.

Applications
o

Biometric security

Watermarking

Steganography

Remote electronic voting

Bank customer identification

Bank

sends customer a set of keys in advance

Bank

web site displays cipher

Customer

applies overlay, reads transaction key

Customer

enters transaction key

Conclusion
o

Among various advantages of Visual Cryptography the property that VCS decoding relies purely

on human visual system, which leads to a lot of interesting applications in private and public sectors of
our society.

Visual Cryptography is used with short messages, therefore giving the cryptanalyst little to work with.

o
o

It can be used with other data hiding techniques to provide better security.
Since Visual Cryptography uses short message, public keys can be encrypted using this method. Visual
Cryptography has proved that security can be attained with even simple encryption schemes.

thank YOU