Optical image encryption based on cascaded iterative angular spectrum algorithm and its implementation with parallel hardware

A cascaded iterative angular spectrum approach (CIASA) based on the methodology of virtual optics is presented for optical security applications. The technique encodes the target image into two different phase only masks (POM) using a concept of free-space angular spectrum propagation. The two phase-masks are designed and located in any two arbitrary planes interrelated through the free space propagation domain in order to implement the optical encryption or authenticity verification. And both phase masks can serve as enciphered texts. Compared with previous methods, the proposed algorithm employs an improved searching strategy: modifying the phase-distributions of both masks synchronously as well as enlarging the searching space. And with such a scheme, we make use of a high performance floating-point Digital Signal Processor (DSP) to accomplish a design of multiple-locks and multiple-keys optical image encryption system. An evaluation of the system performance is made and it is shown that the algorithm results in much faster convergence and better image quality for the recovered image. And two masks and system parameters can be used to design keys for image encryption, therefore the decrypted image can be obtained only when all these keys are under authorization. This key-assignment strategy may reduce the risk of being intruded and show a high security level. These characters may introduce a high level security that makes the encrypted image more difficult to be decrypted by an unauthorized person.