Efficient encryption of wavelet-based coded color images

Karl Martin, Rastislav Lukac, Konstantinos N. Plataniotis

Abstract: An efficient, secure color image coder incorporating Color-SPIHT (C-SPIHT) compression and partial encryption is presented. Confidentiality of the image data is achieved by encrypting only the significance bits of individual wavelet coefficients for K iterations of the C-SPIHT algorithm. By varying K, the level of confidentiality vs. processing overhead can be controlled. For K=2<math><mi is="true">K</mi><mo is="true">=</mo><mn is="true">2</mn></math>, adequate security is achieved and an average of only 0.40% of bits needed encrypting for test images coded at 0.8 bpp.