A 3D image encryption technique using computer-generated integral imaging and cellular automata transform

A novel three-dimensional (3D) image encryption approach by using the computer-generated integral imaging and cellular automata transform (CAT) is proposed, in which, the two-dimensional (2D) elemental image array (EIA) digitally recorded by light rays coming from the 3D image is mapped inversely through the virtual pinhole array according to the ray-tracing theory. Next, the encrypted image is generated by using the 2D CAT scrambling transform for the 2D EIA. The reconstructed process is carried out by using the modified computational integral-imaging reconstruction (CIIR) technique; the depth-dependent plane images are reconstructed on the output plane. The reconstructed 3D image quality of the proposed scheme can be greatly improved, because the proposed encryption scheme carries out in a computer which can avoid the light diffraction caused by optical device CIIR, and solves blur problem caused by CIIR by using the pixel-averaging algorithm. Furthermore, the CAT-based encryption algorithm is an error-free encryption method; CAT as an orthogonal transformation offers considerable simplicity in the calculation of the transform coefficient, that is, it can improve the quality of the reconstructed image by reducing energy loss compared with the traditional complicated transform process. To show the effectiveness of the proposed scheme, we perform computational experiments. Experimental results show that the proposed scheme outperforms conventional encryption methods.