A time efficient secret image sharing scheme for group authentication system without pixel expansions

Abstract

Information security is of vital importance in today’s internet world. Classified data such as military and government information are constantly transmitted over the internet. Among this, top secret data are images such as maps and surveillance footage. It is thus necessary to secure such visual data against unauthorized access. Visual secret sharing is the process of distributing “shares” of a secret image among a group of individuals. Only when all the shares have been combined, can the original secret image be obtained. In this paper, we have proposed a visual secret sharing scheme, using a simple division algorithm, for group authentication systems. This method has the advantage of being both time efficient and devoid of any pixel expansion. It can be applied to both grayscale as well as colour images and, as illustrated further ahead, ensures complete secrecy and regeneration of the original image from all the shares.