Optical image hiding based on computational ghost imaging

• Published in: Optics communications 2016-05, Vol.366, p.314-320
• Main Authors: Wang, Le, Zhao, Shengmei, Cheng, Weiwen, Gong, Longyan, Chen, Hanwu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Algorithms; Computation; Computational ghost imaging; Correlation; Digital watermarking; Eavesdropping; Ghosts; Imaging; Imaging reconstruction techniques; Least significant bit; Watermarking
• ISSN: 0030-4018; 1873-0310
• DOI: 10.1016/j.optcom.2016.01.026

Imaging hiding schemes play important roles in now big data times. They provide copyright protections of digital images. In the paper, we propose a novel image hiding scheme based on computational ghost imaging to have strong robustness and high security. The watermark is encrypted with the configuration of a computational ghost imaging system, and the random speckle patterns compose a secret key. Least significant bit algorithm is adopted to embed the watermark and both the second-order correlation algorithm and the compressed sensing (CS) algorithm are used to extract the watermark. The experimental and simulation results show that the authorized users can get the watermark with the secret key. The watermark image could not be retrieved when the eavesdropping ratio is less than 45% with the second-order correlation algorithm, whereas it is less than 20% with the TVAL3 CS reconstructed algorithm. In addition, the proposed scheme is robust against the ‘salt and pepper’ noise and image cropping degradations. •We propose an image hiding scheme based on computational ghost imaging (CGI) system.•We demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed image hiding scheme by experiment and numerical simulation. Then we test the robustness of the proposed scheme against ‘salt and pepper’ noise and image cropping operation and the security against eavesdropping by experiments.•Comparing with LSB algorithm, the encrypted watermark image produced with the aid of the CGI system, instead of the original watermark image, is embedded into a host image in the proposed scheme, which is complete noise even if eavesdropper has known the proper reconstruction mechanism but has no secret keys.•The scheme paves a way to exploit an image hiding technique combing with ghost imaging, so as to significantly enhance the security and robustness of image hiding techniques.