Random grid-based visual secret sharing with abilities of OR and XOR decryptions

Random grid (RG) is a methodology to construct visual secret sharing (VSS) scheme without pixel expansion. In some reported RG-based VSS schemes, a secret image can be visually reconstructed only by stacking operation, even thought some light-weight computational devices are available. In this paper, a novel RG-based VSS is developed, where the secret image can be recovered in two situations: (1) when computational devices are not available, the secret image can be reconstructed by stacking the shares directly, and (2) when some light-weight computational devices are available, the secret image can be decrypted by XOR operation. Further, the decrypted secret image quality by stacking operation is approximately the same as that of conventional RG-based VSS. But better visual quality is obtained by XOR operation.

► We propose a RG-based VSS with abilities of OR and XOR decryptions. ► The secret image can be recovered by stacking operation without computers. ► The secret image can also be decrypted via XOR operation with computers. ► Better visual quality is obtained when XOR decryption is applied.