2016 Online International Conference on Green Engineering and Technologies (IC-GET)
Hierarchical Visual Cryptography for Grayscale
Image
Trupti Patel
P.G Student, Department of Computer Science
Parul Institute of Engineering and Technology
Limda, Gujarat, India
truptipatel987@gmail.com
Abstract— In this technology era, every sensitive data must be
secured. Visual cryptography is a technique to hide the image
based secret. In visual cryptography the secret image is
encrypted in to shares and at decryption side all shares are
superimposed with each other so that secret is revealed. The key
feature of visual cryptography is that, no difficult computation is
needed at decryption side to decrypt the secret. In this paper we
are applying Hierarchical Visual Cryptography Scheme on gray
image instead of binary image. So, generated shares are gray
share, not binary shares that are generated by the binary image.
Here we are using the new proposed gray share generation
algorithm for generation of n number of shares. Here original
image is encrypted in to n number of levels so security of original
image is increased. At decryption side all n shares must have to
participate to reveal the original secret. Decrypted image has
same size and better visual quality then original secret image.
Index Terms— secret image sharing, pixel expansion, visual
cryptographic scheme, visual cryptography
I. INTRODUCTION
Visual Cryptography is a special encryption technique to
hide information in images in such a way that it can be
decrypted by the human vision if the correct key image is
used. The original information that is to be encrypted referred
as secret. Once the encryption is completed, ciphers are
generated which is referred as shares. The part of secret in
twisted form is known as share. To share the secret among
group of n participants is the fundamental idea behind visual
cryptography. The secret is divided into n number of pieces,
referred as shares, in order to share the secret. After that, these
shares are distributed among n participants. Each participant
provides his own share, to reveal the original secret.
There are many visual cryptographic schemes are available,
but the basic scheme is 2out of 2visual cryptography. In this
scheme secret image is divided in to exactly two shares, if
both two shares are superimposed then secret will be revealed.
In (k, n) visual cryptographic scheme secret image is divided
into n shares; if k or more then k shares are superimposed then
secret will be decoded. The (n, n) visual cryptographic scheme
is extended version of (k, n) visual cryptographic scheme. In
(n, n) visual cryptographic scheme all n shares are require to
decrypt secret while revealing the secret.
978-1-5090-4556-3/16/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE
Rohit Srivastava
Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science
Parul Institute of Engineering and Technology
Limda, Gujarat, India
rts080185@gmail.com
II. RELATED WORK
Visual cryptography is an image encryption technique,
which hide the image based secret. The big advantage of
visual cryptography is that it does not require any complex
computation for decryption of secret but it is only performed
by human visual system. Visual cryptography was introduced
by Moni Naor and Adi Shamir in 1994. Visual cryptography is
a special kind of cryptographic technique, which can decode
concealed images devoid of any cryptographic computation
[1]. It involved breaking up the image into n shares so that
only authenticated user with all n shares will decrypt the
image by overlaying each of the shares over each other. P. V.
Chavan et al. [2] have introduced a new concept for secret
image sharing. Hierarchical visual cryptography hides the
secret information in to number of levels. The expansion ratio
of this technique was 1:4. In [3] a new visual secret sharing
scheme was introduced by researchers. In this secret image
was encoded in to multiple levels. In this secret sharing
scheme grayscale image was an input to the system then
grayscale image was transformed in to halftone image using
halftoning process then kernel’s algorithm was applied on
halftoned image which was based on histogram of secret
image obtained by cencuing the frequency of each gray value
and then two shares were generated. In [4] a new scheme was
proposed (2, 2) and (3, 3) visual cryptography for grayscale
image. The researchers have used randomization and pixel
reversal approach for all methods [4]. In [5] authors have
proposed the design of hierarchical visual cryptography. In
this secret image was divided into two shares, these two shares
were independently generated their own two share, this
method was applied on binary image and the generated share
was expansion less. In [6] authors have developed a new
signature based authentication system which was work on
hierarchical visual cryptography algorithm mention in [5].
HVC encrypts the secret in three different levels. Shares
generated out of HVC were used for authentication
mechanism. All shares were high contrast in nature. Signature
based authentication was found to be powerful than biometric
authentication as biometric patterns changes over time. Shares
generated with this scheme were random in nature giving no
information by visual inspection and graying effect was
 2016 Online International Conference on Green Engineering and Technologies (IC-GET)

reduced to zero due to high contrast nature of shares [6]. In [7] and original secret image is revealed. Fig. 3 indicates the
researchers were proposed an extension of the capabilities of decryption phase in which final key mask is XORed with
XORed based visual cryptography for general access shares to reveal the secret.
structure. The advantages of using this technique are that no
codebook is needed; decryption is done by XOR operation, no
pixel expansion and perfect reconstruction of secret. In [8] a
new (t, n) visual cryptography scheme was proposed. In this
paper researches have used basis matrices and probabilistic
model for secret image retrieval. In [9] a new algorithm was
proposed for extended embedded visual cryptography for
color image using artificial bee colony algorithm. In this first
halftoning process was applied over color image then
embedding process was applied. The visual quality was
increased then other methods. In [11] authors have proposed a
new condition for hierarchical secret image sharing. In this
decryption will be performed if the access condition was
satisfied. Biswapati Jana et al. [12] have proposed a new
protocol for hierarchical visual secret sharing using
steganography, which maintain hierarchy and detect fake
share. The PSNR value of this method was higher than other
method [12]. In [14] a new algorithm proposed for extended
embedded visual cryptography for color image using artificial
bee colony algorithm. First halftoning process was applied
over color image then embedding process was applied. The
visual quality was increased then other methods [14]. In [15]
minimization of pixel expansion using integer linear program
visual cryptography for general access structure was
introduced by researchers.

Organization of this paper is organized as follows.

The related work is introduced in section II. Section III
discusses about proposed scheme. Section IV discusses the
simulation results of proposed algorithm. Finally the
conclusion is given. Fig. 1 Hierarchical Visual Cryptography Scheme

III. PROPOSED WORK

We have design a new scheme for visual cryptography
which will use hierarchical VCS technique to generate n gray
shares in to levels. Figure 1 shows hierarchical VCS. Proposed
scheme consists of three phases which are described as follow:
The original secret image is fed as an input to the system and
two share1 and share 2 are generated which is called as a first
phase of encryption. Share 1 and share2 are again generate
their own two share which is share 11, share 12, share 21,
share22 respectively which is known as second phase of
encryption. In third phase of encryption share 11 generated
share 111 and share 112, share 12 generate share 121 and
share122, share 21 generate share 211 and share 212, share 22
generate share 221 and share 222. At decryption side if all 8
shares are stacked together then original secret will be
revealed. The Gray share generation algorithm is shown in fig.
2. In this algorithm final key mask is generated using
systematic randomization with key then the original secret
image is fed as an input to the system. The secret image is
XORed with final key mask and n gray shares are generated. Fig. 2 Gray N Share Generation Algorithm
On Decryption side all shares are XORed with final key mask
 2016 Online International Conference on Green Engineering and Technologies (IC-GET)

Fig. 6 (a) Share 11 Fig. 6 (b) Share 12

Fig. 3 Decryption Phase

IV. SIMULATION RESULTS

The simulation result of proposed scheme of gray
hierarchical visual cryptography is shown below. Fig. 4 shows
the original secret image. Fig.5 shows first phase of
encryption share1 and share2. In fig.6 second level of
encryption is shown which are share11, share12, share21 and
share22. In fig.7 share111, share112, share121, share122,
share211, share212, share221 and share222 which is third
phase of encryption. Fig.8 shows decrypted image. Decrypted Fig. 6 (c) Share 21 Fig. 6(d) Share 22
image has same size as original secret image and better visual
Fig. 6 Second Phase of Encryption share11, share12, share21 andshare22
quality then original image.

Fig.7 (a) Share 111 Fig.7 (b) Share 112

Fig. 4 Original Secret Image

Fig.7 (c) Share 121 Fig.7 (d) Share 122

Fig 5(a) Share 1 Fig 5 (b) Share 2

Fig. 5 First Phase of Encryption
 2016 Online International Conference on Green Engineering and Technologies (IC-GET)

Fig.7 (e) Share 211
V. CONCLUSION
This paper proposed a new hierarchical visual
cryptography scheme for grayscale image. In this scheme
secret image is encrypted in to levels. Shares generated by this
scheme are gray and highly secured because original secret
image is encrypted in to levels so more secrecy maintain in to
shares. In this paper the visual quality is improved and size of
original secret image and decrypted image is same. In future
we can generate color share by applying this algorithm on any
of R, G and B component of color image.
Fig.7 (f) Share 212

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Fig.7 (g) Share 221 Fig.7 (h) Share 222
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ACKNOWLEDGMENT Transaction On Circuit and System for Video Technology, 2015.

We would like to thank anonymous referees for

his/her valuable comments and suggestion.