ABSTRACT
In this paper, a novel visual secret sharing (VSS) scheme based on QR code (VSSQR) with (k; n) threshold is investigated. Our VSSQR exploits the error correction mechanism in the QR code structure, to generate the bits corresponding to shares (shadow images) by VSS from a secret bit in the processing of encoding QR. Each output share is a valid QR code, that can be scanned and decoded utilizing a QR code reader, which may reduce the likelihood of attracting the attention of potential attackers. Due to different application scenarios, two different recovered ways of the secret image are given. The proposed VSS scheme based on QR code can visually reveal secret image with the abilities of stacking and XOR decryptions, as well as scan every shadow image, that is, a QR code, by a QR code reader. The secret image could be revealed by HVS without any computation based on stacking when no light-weight computation device is available. On the other hand, if the light-weight computation device is available, the secret image can be revealed with better visual quality based on XOR operation and could be lossless revealed when sufficient shares are collected. In addition, it can assist alignment for VSS recovery. The experiment results show the effectiveness of our scheme.
