Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Visibility bounds for visual secret sharing based on JND theory

  • Published:
Multimedia Tools and Applications Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Visual secret sharing (VSS) is a noteworthy variant of secret sharing. One special property of VSS is that the security of VSS is achieved by loosing the contrast and the resolution of the secret image. Generally, the reconstructed secrets of these schemes are considered to be visible if and only if the contrast is greater than 0. However, VSS is based on the human vision system (HVS), thus the visibility is not only dependent on the contract. In this paper, we discuss the limit of human vision for VSS (LHV-VSS), because HVS is actually complicated. We take several human vision parameters into consideration, and propose a profile to analyze the upper bound of n for k-out-of-n VSS schemes based on the just noticeable difference (JND) profile. We conclude some cases of VSS schemes are invisible practically according to the analyses. Finally, we give a definition for VSS, visibility condition.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. Readers can refer to a book chapter of Chen et al. [5] for more details. It deeply discusses cheating prevention in VSS.

  2. This depends on the size of the secret image and the VSS schemes.

References

  1. Ateniese G, Blundo C, De Santis A, Stinson DR (2001) Extended capabilities for visual cryptography. Theor Comput Sci 250(1–2):143–161

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  2. Blundo C, Arco PD, De Santis A, Stinson DR (2003) Contrast optimal threshold visual cryptography schemes. SIAM J Discrete Math 16(2):224–261

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  3. Blundo C, De Santis A, Naor M (2000) Visualcryptography for grey level images. Inf Process Lett 76(6):255–259

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Blundo C, De Santis A, Stinson DR (1999) On the contrast in visual cryptography schemes. J Cryptol 12:261–289

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  5. Chen YC, Horng G, Tsai DS (2011) Cheating prevention visual cryptography. Visual Cryptography and Secret Image Sharing, CRC press, ISBN: 9781439837214

  6. Chou CH, Li YC (1995) A perceptually tuned subband image coder based on the measure of just-noticeable-distortion profile. IEEE Trans Circuits Syst Video Technol 5(6):467–476

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. De Prisco R, De Santis A (2010) Cheating immune threshold visual secret sharing. Comput J 53:1485–1496

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Droste S (1996) New results on visual cryptography. In: Proceedings of advances in cryptography-CRYOT’96. LNCS, vol 1109, pp 401–415

  9. Hofmeister T, Krause M, Simon HU (2000) Contrast-optimal k out of n secret sharing schemes in visual cryptography. Theor Comput Sci 240(2):471–485

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  10. Horng G, Chen TH, Tsai DS (2006) Cheating in visual cryptography. Designs Codes Cryptogr 38(2):219–236

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  11. Hu CM, Tzeng WG (2007) Cheating prevention in visual cryptography. IEEE Trans Image Process 16(1):36–45

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  12. Jayant N (1992) Signal compression: technology targets and research directions. IEEE J Sel Areas Commun 10:314–323

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Lu S, Manchala D, Ostrovsky R (2011) Visual cryptography on graphs. J Comb Optim 21(1):41–66

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Naor M, Shamir A (1994) Visual cryptography. In: Proceedings of advances in cryptography-EUROCRYOT’94. LNCS, vol 950, pp 1–12

  15. Shamir A (1979) How to share a secret. Commun ACM 22:612–613

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  16. Tsai DS, Chen TH, Horng G (2007) A cheating prevention scheme for binary visual cryptography with homogeneous secret images. Pattern Recogn 40(8):2356–2366

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  17. Weir J, Yan W (2010) A comprehensive study of visual cryptography. In: Transactions on Data Hiding and Multimedia Security V, LNCS, vol 6010, pp 70–105

  18. Yang CN, Chung TH (2010) A general multi-secret visual cryptography scheme. Opt Commun 283(24):4949–4962

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Zhou Z, Arce GR, Crescenzo GD (2006) Halftone visual cryptography. IEEE Trans Image Process 15(8):2441–2453

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work was partially supported by the National Science Council, Taiwan, R.O.C., under contract No. NSC100-2221-E-164-010.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Information and Networking Technology, Hsiuping University of Science and Technology, No. 11, Gongye Rd., Dali Dist., Taichung City, 412, Taiwan

    Du-Shiau Tsai

  2. Department of Computer Science and Engineering, National Chung Hsing University, No. 250, Guoguang Rd., South Dist., Taichung City, 402, Taiwan

    Yu-Chi Chen

Authors
  1. Du-Shiau Tsai
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Yu-Chi Chen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Du-Shiau Tsai.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Tsai, DS., Chen, YC. Visibility bounds for visual secret sharing based on JND theory. Multimed Tools Appl 70, 1825–1836 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-012-1206-x

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-012-1206-x

Keywords

Search

Navigation