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A novel perfect contrast XOR-based visual cryptography scheme for multiple secrets

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Abstract

Visual cryptography scheme (VCS) is a kind of secret sharing scheme that only relies on human visual system (HVS) without complicated calculation. In this paper, a novel visual cryptography scheme for multiple secrets is proposed which hides n − 1 (n is odd) secret images by n shares and can fully recover secret images by XOR. In this scheme, each share is divided into n regions and then basic matrices are designed for different regions. The basic matrix of each region is determined by one or two specific secret images. When any m (m is even) shares are acquired, m secret images can be obtained by XOR. In this way, when interceptors do not obtain n − 1 shares, they will mistakenly think that they have obtained all the secret images and reduce the suspicion to give up further interception. Only when the receiver obtains any n − 1 shares for XOR operation, it can get n − 1 complete recovered secret images. The final regions of the secret images will be different with different selected sharing group. The experiment proves that when n takes an odd value, no secret image can be obtained from any odd shares and this scheme has good security. In addition, this paper also analyzes the case that n is even, and gives the suitable solution. The new solution proves the flexibility and scalability of the scheme.

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Acknowledgments

This work is supported by MOE (Ministry of Education in China) Project of Humanities and Social Sciences (Project No. 18YJAZH110) and Shandong Provincial Natural Science Foundations (No. ZR2014JL044, NO. ZR202102220198), China.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Computer Science and Engineering, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao, 266590, People’s Republic of China

    Shu-Mei Liu, Hong-Mei Yang, Jeng-Shyang Pan & Tao Liu

  2. College of Electronic and Information Engineering, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao, 266590, People’s Republic of China

    Bin Yan

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  1. Shu-Mei Liu
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Correspondence to Hong-Mei Yang.

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Liu, SM., Yang, HM., Pan, JS. et al. A novel perfect contrast XOR-based visual cryptography scheme for multiple secrets. Multimed Tools Appl 81, 43125–43143 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-022-13187-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-022-13187-2

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