Introduction

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to lead the readers from applications to research problems. We start the book by briefly reviewing the history of VC, in order to give the reader a general idea of this topic. Then, we identify some important applications of VC. Here, we also discuss in which applications visual cryptography is suitable and in which applications classical cryptography is preferable, in order to guide the reader to select appropriate cryptographic tools according to their intended security services. From these applications, the existing algorithms can be classified into several categories.