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Visual secret sharing scheme with (n, n) threshold for selective secret content based on QR codes

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Abstract

In this paper, a visual secret sharing (VSS) scheme with (n, n)(n ≥ 2) threshold for selective secret content using QR codes is investigated. Firstly, the secret message which can include different types of information(selective secret content) could be encoded into a secret QR code. Secondly, the secret QR code can be embedded into n cover QR codes. Finally, the proposed QR code visual secret sharing scheme(QRVSS) can visually reveal secret QR code with the abilities of stacking and XOR decryptions. Our QRVSS exploits the error correction mechanism inherent in the QR code structure, to embed the bits corresponding to shares that generated by VSS from a secret QR code bit into the same locations of the cover QR codes in the processing of encoding QRs. Each output share is a valid QR code that can be decoded and it may reduce the likelihood of attracting the attention of potential attackers. The reconstructed secret QR code can be decoded as same as the secret contents. In addition, QR codes can assist alignment for VSS recovery and the proposed scheme can be applied to many applications, such as express delivery. The experiment results show the effectiveness of our scheme.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National University of Defense Technology, Hefei, 230037, China

    Song Wan, Lanlan Qi, Guozheng Yang, Yuliang Lu, Xuehu Yan & Longlong Li

Authors
  1. Song Wan
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  2. Lanlan Qi
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  3. Guozheng Yang
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  4. Yuliang Lu
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  5. Xuehu Yan
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  6. Longlong Li
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Correspondence to Xuehu Yan.

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This research was funded by [the National Natural Science Foundation of China] grant number [61602491].

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Wan, S., Qi, L., Yang, G. et al. Visual secret sharing scheme with (n, n) threshold for selective secret content based on QR codes. Multimed Tools Appl 79, 2789–2811 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-019-08246-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-019-08246-0

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