WHAT IS VC?

 Secret sharing scheme.

 Visual Cryptography (VC) was introduced by Moni

Naor and Adi Shamir in Eurocrypt (1994).

 Used to encrypt written text/ pictures etc in a perfectly

secure way.

 Decoding is done by human visual system, without any

computation.
 SECRET SHARING SCHEME

 Method of dividing a secret

amongst a group of Share 1
participants.

 Each of the participants get aShare 2

share of the secret.

 Sufficient number of shares Share 1

combined reveals the secret. +
Share 2
EXAMPLE - K BY N SCHEME (K,N)

 Consider data D (text / image) divided into

, D2 …. Dn)
 n number of shares (D1
 k or more shares when overlapped reveals information about
the data
 k-1 or fewer shares when overlapped reveal no information
about the data

 If k = n then all participants are required to reconstruct the

secret.
PRELIMINARY NOTATIONS

 n = Group size

 k = Threshold

 m = number of pixels in a share. (loss in resolution from the

original image to the recovered image)

 ɑ = the relative difference in the weight between the

combined shares that come from a white pixel and a black
pixel in the original image. Represents loss in contrast.
PRELIMINARY NOTATIONS
(CONTD..)
C0 = Collection of n × m Boolean matrices for shares of white pixel.

C1 = Collection of n × m Boolean matrices for shares of black pixel.

 V =ORed k rows.

 H(V) =
Hamming weight.

 d= number in [1,m]
EXAMPLE 2 BY 2 SCHEME (2
SUBPIXELS)

Partition for black and white pixels in 2 by 2

scheme.
 EXAMPLE 2 BY 2 SCHEME (2
SUBPIXELS)
This scheme can be explained by below
values • V1 = [1,1] or [1,1]
n = 2

m = 2 • H(V0 ) = 1

k=2 • H(V1) = 2

 V0 = [0,1] or [1,0]
• ɑ = H(V1) - H(V0 ) / m = 1/2
 IMPLEMENTATION
Platform: .Net Framework 3.5

Language: C#

Reason for selecting .Net:

 Previous experience working on .Net.
 It is optimal for developing and demonstrating application through
UI.
 .NET also has lot of support for image acquisition and manipulation.

Other Platforms: Matlab, Python etc

RESULT FOR IMAGE (CONTD..)
 RESULTS IN 2 BY 2 SCHEME (2
SUBPIXELS)
The secret image I is encoded into Share1 & Share2 two
shares.

D is decoded by superimposing these two shares with 50%

loss of contrast. (ɑ = ½)

The decoded image is identified, although some contrast

loss is observed.

Due to pixel expansionthe width of the decoded image is

twice as that of the original image.
ADVANTAGES

 Simple to implement

 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

 The contrast of the reconstructed image is not maintained.

 Perfect alignment of the transparencies is troublesome.

 Due topixel expansionthe width of the decoded image is

twice as that of the original image. Leads to loss of
information due to change in aspect ratio.

 Additional processing is required for colored images.

APPLICATION

 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
THANK YOU
THANK YOU