Visual Secret Sharing Schemes for Color Images Using Halftoning

This paper proposes a method of encoding a color image into n meaningful halftone shares using the scheme of halftone visual cryptography. Visual cryptography is a secret sharing scheme where a secret image is encrypted into the so-called shares which are noise-like secure images that can be transmitted or distributed over an untrusted communication channel. The image can be reconstructed "visually" by superimposing the shares. The proposed method encrypts the color image into high-quality n halftone images or halftone shares (color). This scheme achieves lossless recovery and reduces the noise in the shares without any computational complexity.