Optics Communications 283 (2010) 27892793

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Optics Communications
j o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w. e l s ev i e r. c o m / l o c a t e / o p t c o m

Multiple-image parallel optical encryption

Xiao Yong-Liang, Zhou Xin , Yuan Sheng, Chen Yao-Yao
Department of Optoelectronics Science and Technology, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065 China

a r t i c l e

i n f o

a b s t r a c t
A novel technique for multiple-image optical encryption is proposed, in which a set of parallel plaintexts can be extracted from the same designed ciphertext respectively. In the process of encryption, the principle of random phase encoding is utilized, and the phase keys corresponding to different plaintexts are achieved independently from the same designed ciphertext by cascade phase retrieval algorithm (CPRA). The advantages of the approach could be concluded as implementing decryption without cross-talk, innite encrypted capacity and simple architecture. And the plaintexts extracted mode is extended from peer-topeer to peer-to-multipeer. Numerical simulation veries the validity. 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Article history: Received 7 September 2009 Received in revised form 20 November 2009 Accepted 4 March 2010 Keywords: Multiple-image encryption Optical security Phase retrieval Random-phase encoding

1. Introduction In recent years, many optical information processing techniques have been applied widely in the eld of information security, as they can offer the possibility of high-speed parallel encryption of twodimensional image data. Particularly, double random phase encoding (DRPE) [1], in which a plaintext can be encoded into a white-noiselike image by use of two random phase masks located at input and Fourier planes respectively, has been implemented in many elds, such as optical memory [2], three-dimensional information encryption [3], information hiding [4], etc. By many scholars' effort, optical security has been developed to multiple-image encryption. Many approaches have been exploited for multiple-image optical encryption such as random phase matching [5], spread-space spreadspectrum multiplexing [6], and multichannel encryption [7], etc. However, the troubles in multiple-image optical encryption always cannot be completely resolved in the published works, e.g., limited encryption capacity and cross-talk. Recently, wavelength and position multiplexing proposed by Situ [8,9] are employed for multiple-image optical encryption. The architecture is simple, but there is cross-talk noise present inevitably in decrypted results for gray image encryption. On the other hand, cascade architecture for multiple-image optical encryption proposed by Shi [10] has resolved cross-talk problem successfully. And recently, we have improved the encoding algorithm of cascade architecture to

Corresponding author. E-mail address: zhoxn985@sohu.com (Z. Xin). 0030-4018/$ see front matter 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.optcom.2010.03.003

enhance the encrypted capacity [11]. Also, X. F. Meng [12] proposed similar cascade architecture to realize multiple-image hierarchical encryption. However, each plaintext decryption is interdependent in these cascade architectures. It means that the decrypted deviation in any stage will inuence subsequent decryption, and also the architecture is inconvenient to be calibrated in practical applications because the center point of each mask in all stages must be collinear. In this paper, we propose a simple and effective architecture for multiple-image optical encryption, in which each plaintext decryption is mutually independent and the system calibration is convenient, also, the ciphertext can be designed arbitrarily. In our method, a set of plaintexts can be encoded into many similar ciphertexts in a simple 6f optical system with the help of cascade phase retrieval algorithm (CPRA), and these ciphertexts are approximate to the designed ciphertext. In the process of decryption, all the plaintexts can be approximately extracted from the designed ciphertext respectively. Compared with wavelength and position multiplexing, our method avoids cross-talk presenting in decrypted images. Also, compared with the cascade architecture, the decrypted deviation of any plaintext will not affect the others, namely extraction for all plaintexts are parallel. Moreover, since the process of encryption and decryption is parallel and independent, the encrypted capacity is innite without cross-talk. We can believe that parallel optical encryption can indeed resolve some problems by a simple change. Numerical simulation is performed to conrm that our methodology is correct and effective. In Section 2, we describe a technique background for multipleimage optical encryption. In Section 3, we explain the basic principle of multiple-image parallel optical encryption. In Section 4, we show the computer simulation to verify the idea. Discussions and conclusion are presented in Section 5 and Section 6 respectively.

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2. Technique background First of all, we briey describe wavelength as well as position multiplexing technique, and the cascade architecture for multipleimage optical encryption. The approaches demonstrated here are operated in the Fresnel domain. 2.1. Wavelength and position multiplexing for multiple-image optical encryption Wavelength and position, the key parameters for double random phase encoding in the Fresnel domain, can be multiplexed for multipleimage optical encryption. Both the multiplexing techniques can be described in Fig. 1. In wavelength multiplexing, each plaintext fn is rstly encrypted into ciphertext gn by the same phase keys under coherent illumination with wavelength n, and then all the ciphertexts are superimposed to yield the nal single ciphertext gn. Each plaintext fn can be extracted by decoding a single ciphertext g n with corresponding wavelength n. There will be cross-talk noise appear in each decrypted image. The cross-talk noise will worsen the decrypted results once the number of plaintext is large, which may induce limited encrypted capacity. In position multiplexing, on the other hand, the incident wavelength is constant and the distance L1 and L2 can be regarded as multiplexing parameters respectively. Each plaintext f n is encrypted by changing L1 or L2, and also all the ciphertexts are superimposed to yield the nal ciphertext gn. Equally, cross-talk noise is obvious in decrypted results. However, parallel optical encryption can settle cross-talk and limited capacity problems. 2.2. Cascade architecture for multiple-image optical encryption The cascade architecture is shown in Fig. 2. The distance between adjacent masks are d1 and d2. g01 and g02 are the rst and second plaintexts to be encoded respectively. Firstly, g01 is encoded into g02 by two pure-phase masks. Then the output amplitude image g02 is encoded into the third plaintext g03. By analogy, the output amplitude image g0N is encoded into the ultimate amplitude image g0N + 1. The whole process can be expressed briey as follows: the output image (amplitude) in the (n 1)th stage, which is regarded as the input image (amplitude) in the nth stage, is encoded into the output image (amplitude) in the nth stage, n = 2....N. Obviously, the encryption process is operated by sequence. So the next decryption is based on the last decryption, and plaintext extraction is interdependent, not parallel. Another encryption approach called hierarchical encryption [12] is similar but somewhat different to the above method. Different pure-phase pairs standing for different security levels are connected together in a cascade fashion to produce different output images. One has more pure-phase pairs, say the higher security level, the more images one can get access. However, cascade architecture seems difcult to be calibrated in optical applications. 3. Multiple-image parallel optical encryption For simplicity, we describe the parallel optical encryption in the Fourier domain instead of the Fresnel domain. Operation in other
k + 1

Fig. 2. The cascade architecture for multiple-image optical encryption.

domain such as Fractional Fourier [13], Fresnel [14], Hartley [15], Gyrator [16] etc., is the similar to the Fourier domain. 3.1. Cascade phase retrieval algorithm [11] Let us briey describe the cascade phase retrieval algorithm (CPRA) in an optical 4f system shown in Fig. 3. The aim of CPRA is to encode f(x, y) into g(x, y). We describe the whole process of CPRA with a ow chart shown in Fig. 4 where and denote multiplication and subtraction operation. The CPRA involves a number of cycling iterations which are constrained by two amplitude images f(x, y) and g(x, y). The algorithm is summarized as follows: Firstly, suppose in the kth step (k = 1, 2, 3) forward-iteration, the output function after forward-iteration performed by Fourier transform twice can be written as
h i n n h io h io k k 1 k k g x; y exp i x; y = FT FT f x; y exp i x; y exp i u; v

1 where, (u, v) denotes the coordinate of the mask RPM2, FT and FT 1 denote Fourier transform and inverse Fourier transform respectively, gk(x, y) denotes the output amplitude image in kth step iteration, k(x, y) is the output phase in kth iteration. Secondly, judge the output whether satises the convergent criterion. If the result satises convergent criterion, the iteration stops; otherwise, perform next step. The convergent criterion is dened by correlation coefcient (CC) between gk(x, y) and g(x, y), CC can be expressed as h i COV g x; y; g k x; y g gk

CC =

where cov[g(x, y), gk(x, y)] is the cross-covariance between g(x, y) and gk(x, y), g and gk are the standard deviation of g(x, y) and gk(x, y) respectively. Thirdly, nd out the update phase k + 1(u, v) and k + 1(x, y). f(x, y) is taken as the constraint in forward-iteration and remains unchanged, g(x, y) is taken as the constraint in backward-iteration. And the two phases can be modied in each cycling as ! k FT fg x; y expi x; yg u; v = angle FT f x; y exp ik x; y

Fig. 1. The architecture of wavelength and position multiplexing for multiple-image optical encryption.

Fig. 3. Optical 4f system.

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So, we can employ another pure-phase mask, shown as RPM3 in Fig. 5, to modulate k(x, y) into (x, y). Dene the phase mask RPM3 as k(x, y) x; y = x; y x; y
k
k

Thus, modulated by three pure-phase k(x, y), k(u, v) and k(x, y), plaintext f(x, y) can be encoded into a real-value ciphertext Gk(,) The encoding process can be denoted as n k h k i h io k k G ; = FT g x; y exp i x; y exp i x; y
Fig. 4. The ow chart of cascade phase retrieval algorithm.
k + 1

 h n h io h i 1 k k + 1 x; y = angle FT FT g x; y exp i x; y exp i u; v

Since Gk(,) is extremely approximate to the designed ciphertext G(,), decryption can be performed from the designed ciphertext G(,), and it can be expressed as
f x; y = FT

4 angle{} denotes extracting phase operation. Then, update the key with k + 1(u, v) and k + 1(x, y) and return to the rst step. So, if circulation stops in (k + 1)th iteration, gk + 1(x, y) is obtained from Eq. (1), which is extremely approximate to g(x, y). 3.2. Parallel optical encryption The architecture of multiple-image parallel optical encryption is shown in Fig. 5. Compared with a 4f system shown in Fig. 4, another 2f unit is appended. Here, we rstly consider a situation of single plaintext encryption. f(x, y) is the plaintext, G(,) is the ciphertext designed arbitrarily on the output plane. In order to express optical transform with mathematical equations conveniently, we dene the physical coordinate (,)is inverse to the input coordinate (x, y). In order to utilize CPRA, let us consider the inverse Fourier transform of the designed ciphertext and it can be written as h i 1 g x; y exp i x; y = FT G ; 5

n n h i h io h io 1 k k FT FT G ; exp i x; y exp i u; v

9 f(x, y) is the decrypted image extremely approximate to the original plaintext f(x, y). The conjugations of mask RPM1 and RPM2 are regarded as decryption keys. As to the multiple-image parallel optical encryption, the process is the same. Dene the ith real-valued plaintext as fi, i = 1,2,3. When a coherent plane optical wave illuminates the architecture perpendicularly as shown in Fig. 4, the encrypted process can be expressed as h n h  i  o  i k 1 k k k exp ii exp ii Gi = FT FT FT fi exp ii 10

where, g(x, y) and (x, y) are respectively the amplitude and phase of the inverse Fourier transform of the designed ciphertext. Here, inverse Fourier transform is performed by numerical computation to search out the random phase masks, and can be optically realized by illuminating reversely. If we take the plaintext f(x, y) as the forward constraint and take amplitude g(x, y) as the backward constraint when making use of CPRA, f(x, y) can be encoded into a complex function whose amplitude is extremely approximate to g(x, y) when the iteration stops. For simplicity, the two searched pure-phase are still represented as k(x, y) and k(u, v) respectively. When the iteration stops, the output results can be expressed as follows
h k i n n h io h io k 1 k k g x; y exp i x; y = FT FT f x; y exp i x; y exp i u; v

where, k(x, y) = (x, y) k(x, y). k(x, y) is the output phase for ith i i i plaintext in the Fourier plane. The coordinates are omitted here. Gk is i the output real-value ciphertext obtained by encrypting the ith plaintext fi, and extremely approximate to the designed ciphertext G(,). k, k i i and k are the encryption keys for the plaintext fi. For different i plaintexts, encryption keys are different. In the process of decryption, each plaintext can be extracted from the same designed ciphertext G(,) with corresponding decryption keys, which are the conjugation of the encryption masks exp [ik(u, v)] and exp [ik(,)]. The decryption i i process can be written as fi = FT

n h    i  o 1 k k exp ii FT FT G exp ii

11

fi denotes ith extracted image and is extremely approximate to corresponding plaintext fi. One can learn that a plaintext f(x, y) can be encoded into a complex function, whose amplitude is extremely approximate to g(x, y), the amplitude of inverse Fourier transform of the designed ciphertext. The phase discrepancy between k(x, y) and (x, y) can be eliminated by the mask RPM3. Likewise different plaintext fi can be encoded into real-value ciphertext Gk with phase k, k and k; also fi can be i i i i approximately extracted from the designed ciphertext G(,) because G(,) is extremely approximate to Gk. Whereas the phase keys for i ith and (i + 1)th plaintexts are independent, we can say that the plaintext extraction is mutually independent, namely parallel. With the development of technology, phase key can be easily written on the spatial light modulator, thus the phase key pairs can be updated in real time [17]. 4. Computer simulation Computer simulations on platform Matlab 7.1 can support the theoretical analysis. Fig. 6(a) is the designed ciphertext, with 256 256 pixels and 256 gray levels. Fig. 6(b), (c), (d) are plaintexts. According to Eq. (10), we can respectively encrypt Fig. 6(b), (c), (d) into three realvalue ciphertexts which are extremely approximate to Fig. 6(a). Take Fig. 6(b) as an example, it can be encrypted into the ciphertext Fig. 7(a)

6 where, gk(x, y) denotes the output amplitude image approximated to g(x, y), k(x, y) is the output phase. Although gk(x, y) is approximated to g(x, y), k(x, y) is completely independent of (x, y).

Fig. 5. The architecture of multiple-image parallel optical encryption.

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Fig. 8. CC variation versus iteration number.

Fig. 6. (a) is the designed ciphertext, (b), (c) and (d) are the plaintexts.

by three phase keys which are produced with 40 iterations as Eqs. (2), (3) and (7). Obviously, the encrypted result Fig. 7(a) is extremely approximate to the designed ciphertext Fig. 6(a). So, Fig. 7 (b) can be extracted from Fig. 6(a). The same operation is performed to encrypt Fig. 6(c) and (d), and the encrypted results are not shown here. All the extractions of Fig. 6(b), (c), (d) can be operated from the same designed ciphertext Fig. 6(a), corresponding extracted results according to Eq. (11) are respectively shown in Fig. 7(b), (c), (d). Obviously, no matter the gray, black-ground or white-ground images are encrypted, the quality of the extracted results is exceptionally good. During the process of multiple-image optical parallel encryption, CC variation versus iteration number is plotted in Fig. 8. One can learn that CCs for different plaintexts Fig. 6. (a), (b) and (c) are quite approximate to 1, although the convergence speed is somewhat distinct. It demonstrates that different plaintexts can be approximately encoded into g(x, y), the amplitude of the inverse Fourier

transform of the designed ciphertext. And the phase discrepancy is eliminated by RPM3, so different plaintexts can be approximately encoded into the designed ciphertext. Also, each plaintext can be approximately extracted from the designed ciphertext. The plaintext extraction is parallel and mutually independent, so the number of plaintext is unlimited. Hence, we believe that the encrypted capacity is innite without cross-talk. 5. Discussions 5.1. Algorithm The objective of utilizing CPRA is to approximately encode the input plaintext into the designed ciphertext, without concerning the phase discrepancy because the phase discrepancy can be eliminated by another mask (i.e. RPM3 in Fig. 5). Actually, some other phase retrieval algorithms such as G-S [18], projections onto constraint sets (POCS) [19,20], may accomplish such a work. And only two, not three pure-phase masks need to be utilized in G-S and POCS, which makes the optical setup degenerate into a common optical 4f system. However, the convergence of G-S and POCS is worse than CPRA, so that the output image using CPRA is more similar to the designed ciphertext than the output image using G-S or POCS. If we directly employ G-S or POCS algorithm for multiple-image parallel optical encryption, severe noise will be arisen inevitably in the decrypted result, although the optical setup is simper. Recently, a modied G-S algorithm [21] may be a choice to realize parallel encryption in the Fresnel domain, because there are only two phase keys need to be utilized and the output image is clear. In our method, we prefer the quality of decrypted image at expensive of the optical setup. However, 6f optical setup is not too complicated. Another 2f unit appended on 4f system can exploit the phase discrepancy to make the ciphertext designed arbitrarily possible. 5.2. Approximated solution It is worth noting that all the extracted results are just approximate solutions. The deviation mainly stems from the iteration algorithm. No matter how many times iteration are performed, Gk is impossible i utterly equivalent to the amplitude G(,). The deviation between the amplitude Gk and G(,) will be diffused to the extracted results, i because each plaintext fi is extracted from the same designed ciphertext G(,) rather than the own ciphertext Gk. Nevertheless, the deviation i arisen in the extracted plaintexts is so little that it does not inuence the visual effect at all.

Fig. 7. (a) is the actual encrypted ciphertext of Fig. 6(b), (b), (c) and (d) are the plaintexts extracted from the designed ciphertext Fig. 6(a).

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5.3. Application Also, ciphertext can be designed to be a complex function including amplitude and phase. An arbitrary phase appended on the real ciphertext can accomplish this situation with ease, and the encryption as well as extraction process is the same to a real one. The different types of ciphertext have their own advantages on different occasions. For example, for a real one, the ciphertext transmission can be avoided, and the ciphertext just needs to be appointed on Internet; whereas for a complex one, different phases can be distributed to different groups although the amplitude is appointed on Internet, etc. Anyway, the extracted mode is not the conventional peer-to-peer manner anymore; it is successfully extended to peer-to-multipeer manner. 6. Conclusion To summarize, we introduce a parallel encryption technique to optical information security. The advantages of the approach could be concluded as implementing decryption without cross-talk, innite encrypted capacity and simple architecture. Although, the optical setup is a 6f system, somewhat complicated than a conventional 4f system, it is indeed resolve the cross-talk and limited encryption capacity problems in multiple-image encryption. Moreover, the ciphertext can be freely designed, including amplitude and phase.

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