K out of N secret sharing scheme for gray and color images

Many applications require exchange of information over the internet in a secure manner. The main objective of this paper is to develop a k out of n fast secret sharing scheme to transmit secret images using n number of shares such that any pre-defined k shares where k less than n can be combined to reconstruct the secret images using a valid key and disallowing revelation of the secret image if the number of shares falls below k. This paper ensures authentication of share holders and eradicates the problem of misusing the shares. The regenerated image has better visual quality and the recovery time is also very less as it requires simple addition and XOR operations. Further this paper addresses the problem of pixel expansion as the size of the shares is same as that of original secret image. This algorithm is designed such that it supports both gray and color images.