A new meaningful secret sharing scheme based on random grids, error diffusion and chaotic encryption

In this paper, a novel secret image sharing scheme is proposed to encode a secret binary image into meaningful shadow images. It combines random grids (RG), error diffusion (ED) and chaotic permutation. The secret image is first encrypted based on chaotic permutation and then shared among n halftone shadow images RGs generated by error diffusion, while the recovered secret image is recovered from k or more shadow images. The proposed scheme has the advantages of simple computation, alternative order of shadow images in recovery, avoids the design of complex codebook, and avoids the pixel expansion problem. Experimental results and analysis show the effectiveness of the proposed scheme. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.