Image Hiding in Stochastic Geometric Moiré Gratings

Abstract

An image hiding scheme based on stochastic moiré gratings is proposed, discussed, and illustrated in this paper. The proposed scheme is based on a counter-intuitive optical feature of specially designed stochastic moiré gratings when similar images in the static mode become very different in the time-averaged mode. A soft computing PSO algorithm was used for the construction of stochastic gratings. Complex computational algorithms were required to construct the cover image; however, the decryption process was completely visual. The cover image must oscillate in a predefined direction and at a predefined amplitude (the amplitude of the harmonic oscillation is one of the parameters of the proposed image hiding scheme). Computational experiments were used to demonstrate the efficacy of this optical image hiding scheme based on the stochastic moiré gratings.