Two in One Image Secret Sharing Scheme (TiOISSS) for extended progressive visual cryptography using simple modular arithmetic operations

Abstract

Existing Extended Progressive Visual Cryptography scheme (EPVCS) suffers from the problem of pixel expansion, poor quality of reconstructed image and residual trace of cover images in the reconstructed image. Hence in this paper, Two in One Image secret sharing scheme for EPVCS is proposed which decodes the encrypted image in two stages. The proposed scheme provides k,n threshold construction using meaningful shares without pixel expansion and demonstrates that the reconstructed image has improved quality compared to the existing schemes. To reduce the computational complexity, the proposed scheme uses simple Modular Arithmetic operations instead of Galois field. The proposed scheme has the additional advantages of supporting any value of k and n, no overhead in resizing the secret image and no residual trace of cover image. Simulation results and performance analysis show the effectiveness of proposed scheme with improved contrast, 99% Structural Similarity of the reconstructed image and good progressive reconstruction.