Novel Visual Secret Sharing Scheme for the QR Code with Meaningful Shares

Abstract

Visual secret sharing (VSS) scheme can share the secret image with several shares. Shares are performed by the decoding operation to restore the secret image. VSS scheme is mainly used for the secure transmission of images. Quick response (QR) code is often used by people on the Internet. It can be encrypted by the VSS scheme to enhance the security of its transmission. The share is meaningless that will arouse the suspicion of the attacker. The security of the VSS scheme is decreased. This paper proposes a novel VSS scheme for the QR code with meaningful images to solve this problem. Two continue tone images are converted to halftone images. The halftone image is modified to generate the share. Every share is meaningful, not meaningless. Two shares are performed the decoding operation to restore the secret QR code. The restored QR code can be correctly decoded by the general decoder. Experimental results prove that the proposed scheme is feasible.