Sparsity and `Something Else': An Approach to Encrypted Image Folding

TL;DR

This paper introduces Encrypted Image Folding, a method leveraging sparse representations and transformations like DCT to simultaneously compress and encrypt images with simple processing steps.

Contribution

It presents a novel approach that combines image compression and encryption using sparse representations and adaptable transformations.

Findings

Effective simultaneous image storage and encryption demonstrated.

Applicable with various transformations, including DCT and combined dictionaries.

Simple processing steps enable practical implementation.

Abstract

A property of sparse representations in relation to their capacity for information storage is discussed. It is shown that this feature can be used for an application that we term Encrypted Image Folding. The proposed procedure is realizable through any suitable transformation. In particular, in this paper we illustrate the approach by recourse to the Discrete Cosine Transform and a combination of redundant Cosine and Dirac dictionaries. The main advantage of the proposed technique is that both storage and encryption can be achieved simultaneously using simple processing steps.