Visual Cryptography Scheme with Essential Participants

Peng Li, Liping Yin and Jianfeng Ma
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Peng Li: Department of Mathematics and Physics, North China Electric Power University, Baoding 071003, China
Liping Yin: Department of Mathematics and Physics, North China Electric Power University, Baoding 071003, China
Jianfeng Ma: Department of Mathematics and Physics, North China Electric Power University, Baoding 071003, China

Mathematics, 2020, vol. 8, issue 5, 1-19

Abstract: Visual cryptography scheme (VCS) shares a binary secret image into multiple shadows printed on transparencies. Stacking shadows can visually decode the secret image without computational resources. Specifically, a ( k , n ) threshold VCS (( k , n )-VCS) shares a secret image into n shadows, stacking any k shadows can reveal the secret image by human visual system, while any less than k shadows cannot decode any information regarding the secret image. In practice, some participants (essentials) play more important roles than others (non-essentials). In this paper, we propose a ( t , s , k , n ) VCS with essential participants (so called ( t , s , k , n )-EVCS). The secret image is shared into n shadows with s essentials and n - s non-essentials. Any k shadows, including at least t essentials, can reveal the secret image. The proposed scheme is constructed from a monotonic ( K , N )-VCS. The condition and optimal choice of ( K , N )-VCS to construct ( t , s , k , n )-EVCS are given by solving integer programming model. The experimental results are conducted to verify the feasibility of our scheme.

Keywords: visual secret sharing; secret image sharing; visual cryptography; integer programming; essential shadows (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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