Color information cryptosystem based on optical superposition principle and phase-truncated gyrator transform

A novel asymmetric color information cryptosystem based on an optical coherent superposition method and phase-truncated gyrator transform (GT) is proposed. In this proposal, an original color image is converted into three independent channels, i.e., red, green, and blue. Each channel is separated into a random phase masks (RPM) and a key phase mask (KPM) using a coherent superposition method. The KPM is a modulation of the RPM by the color channel and used as decryption key. The same RPM, which is independent of plaintext, can be chosen for different images of the same size; however, KPMs, which are related to the original color images, are different. The RPM and the KPM are independently gyrator transformed. Then two gyrator spectra are, respectively, phase truncated to obtain two encoded images and amplitude truncated to generate two asymmetric phase keys. The KPM and two phase keys provide asymmetric keys. The transformation angles of the GT give additional keys for each channel and thus offer a high-level robustness against existing attacks. The proposed optical design is free from axial movement. Numerical simulations are demonstrated to verify the flexibility and effectiveness of the proposed method. (C) 2012 Optical Society of America