Image encryption based on a grating generated by a reflection intensity map

A virtual optical technique for image encryption and decryption is presented in this paper. The technique is carried out using optical operation and computational algorithms. In this technique, a grey-level image is captured by a charge-coupled device camera and encrypted using a linear grating superposed on the reflected intensity map of the object. The grating is generated as a fringe pattern by a computer algorithm. The reflected intensity map is determined using the grey level of the image. This reflected intensity map is included in the fringe pattern as an optical phase. It generates a grating, which is represented as a fringe pattern deformed according to the reflected intensity map. The decryption method is performed by a phase recovery method. The technique used here is a spatial synchronous method. This encryption and decryption technique has been used to encrypt real face images. To describe the accuracy of results obtained by this technique, the rms of error is calculated using decrypted and original data images. This encrypting technique is a virtual optical method because all the optical operations are performed by computer processes, and optical components are not required, which are advantages over optical methods, where some physical optical components are used. Simulated images are used in order to assess the technique. Finally, results on real images are presented.