XOR-based progressive visual secret sharing using generalized random grids

This paper proposes an exclusive or (XOR)-based progressive visual secret sharing scheme that uses generalized random grids. This scheme differs from conventional visual secret sharing schemes. In addition to progressive recovery of secret messages, decrypting with an XOR operator produces reconstructed secret images with high visual quality when more shares are collected. Furthermore, the proposed scheme does not require a codebook to generate shares. In addition, there is no pixel expansion of the shares; thus, storing the shares does not result in additional burden. Experimental results reveal that the proposed scheme is superior to existing approaches with respect to performance and practicability.