Changliang Guo

Roadmap on optical security

Information security and authentication are important challenges facing society. Recent attacks by hackers on the databases of large commercial and financial companies have demonstrated that more research and development of advanced approaches are necessary to deny unauthorized access to critical data. Free space optical technology has been investigated by many researchers in information security, encryption, and authentication. The main motivation for using optics and photonics for information security is that optical waveforms possess many complex degrees of freedom such as amplitude, phase, polarization, large bandwidth, nonlinear transformations, quantum properties of photons, and multiplexing that can be combined in many ways to make information encryption more secure and more difficult to attack. This roadmap article presents an overview of the potential, recent advances, and challenges of optical security and encryption using free space optics. The roadmap on optical security is comprised of six categories that together include 16 short sections written by authors who have made relevant contributions in this field. The first category of this roadmap describes novel encryption approaches, including secure optical sensing which summarizes double random phase encryption applications and flaws [Yamaguchi], the digital holographic encryption in free space optical technique which describes encryption using multidimensional digital holography [Nomura], simultaneous encryption of multiple signals [Perez-Cabre], asymmetric methods based on information truncation [Nishchal], and dynamic encryption of video sequences [Torroba]. Asymmetric and one-way cryptosystems are analyzed by Peng. The second category is on compression for encryption. In their respective contributions, Alfalou and Stern propose similar goals involving compressed data and compressive sensing encryption. The very important area of cryptanalysis is the topic of the third category with two sections: Sheridan reviews phase retrieval algorithms to perform different attacks, whereas Situ discusses nonlinear optical encryption techniques and the development of a rigorous optical information security theory. The fourth category with two contributions reports how encryption could be implemented at the nano- or micro-scale. Naruse discusses the use of nanostructures in security applications and Carnicer proposes encoding information in a tightly focused beam. In the fifth category, encryption based on ghost imaging using single-pixel detectors is also considered. In particular, the authors [Chen, Tajahuerce] emphasize the need for more specialized hardware and image processing algorithms. Finally, in the sixth category, Mosk and Javidi analyze in their corresponding papers how quantum imaging can benefit optical encryption systems. Sources that use few photons make encryption systems much more difficult to attack, providing a secure method for authentication.

Iterative phase retrieval algorithms. I: Optimization

Two modified Gerchberg-Saxton (GS) iterative phase retrieval algorithms are proposed. The first we refer to as the spatial phase perturbation GS algorithm (SPP GSA). The second is a combined GS hybrid input-output algorithm (GS/HIOA). In this paper (Part I), it is demonstrated that the SPP GS and GS/HIO algorithms are both much better at avoiding stagnation during phase retrieval, allowing them to successfully locate superior solutions compared with either the GS or the HIO algorithms. The performances of the SPP GS and GS/HIO algorithms are also compared. Then, the error reduction (ER) algorithm is combined with the HIO algorithm (ER/HIOA) to retrieve the input object image and the phase, given only some knowledge of its extent and the amplitude in the Fourier domain. In Part II, the algorithms developed here are applied to carry out known plaintext and ciphertext attacks on amplitude encoding and phase encoding double random phase encryption systems. Significantly, ER/HIOA is then used to carry out a ciphertext-only attack on AE DRPE systems.

Iterative phase retrieval algorithms. Part II: Attacking optical encryption systems

The modified iterative phase retrieval algorithms developed in Part I [Guo et al., Appl. Opt.54, 4698 (2015)] are applied to perform known plaintext and ciphertext attacks on amplitude encoding and phase encoding Fourier-transform-based double random phase encryption (DRPE) systems. It is shown that the new algorithms can retrieve the two random phase keys (RPKs) perfectly. The performances of the algorithms are tested by using the retrieved RPKs to decrypt a set of different ciphertexts encrypted using the same RPKs. Significantly, it is also shown that the DRPE system is, under certain conditions, vulnerable to ciphertext-only attack, i.e., in some cases an attacker can decrypt DRPE data successfully when only the ciphertext is intercepted.

Interferometry based multispectral photon-limited 2D and 3D integral image encryption employing the Hartley transform

We present a method of securing multispectral 3D photon-counted integral imaging (PCII) using classical Hartley Transform (HT) based encryption by employing optical interferometry. This method has the simultaneous advantages of minimizing complexity by eliminating the need for holography recording and addresses the phase sensitivity problem encountered when using digital cameras. These together with single-channel multispectral 3D data compactness, the inherent properties of the classical photon counting detection model, i.e. sparse sensing and the capability for nonlinear transformation, permits better authentication of the retrieved 3D scene at various depth cues. Furthermore, the proposed technique works for both spatially and temporally incoherent illumination. To validate the proposed technique simulations were carried out for both the 2D and 3D cases. Experimental data is processed and the results support the feasibility of the encryption method.

Robustness of Double Random Phase Encoding spread-space spread-spectrum watermarking technique

In this paper the robustness of a recently proposed image watermarking scheme, namely the Double Random Phase Encoding spread-space spread-spectrum watermarking (DRPE SS-SS) technique, is investigated. The watermark, which is chosen to be in the form of a digital barcode image, is numerically encrypted using a simulation of the optical DRPE process. This produces a random complex image, which is then processed to form a real valued random image with a low number of quantization levels. This signal is added to the host image. Extraction of the barcode, involves applying an inverse DRPE process to the watermarked image followed by low pass filtering. This algorithm is designed to utilize the capability of the DRPE to reversibly spread the energy of the watermarking information in both the space and spatial frequency domains. In this way the energy of the watermark in any spatial or spatial frequency bin is very small. To test robustness several common geometric transformations and signal processing operations are performed using both informed and blind detections for different barcode widths and different quantization levels. The results presented indicate that while the DRPE SS-SS method is robust to scaling, and JPEG compression distortion, it is especially robust to spatial cropping and both low and high pass filtering. Both random-watermark and random-host false positive cases are examined. The uniqueness of the watermark is demonstrated, and it is shown that the DRPE SS-SS has very low false positive errors, and that the larger the barcode width, the lower the false positive rate. Finally the effects of both printing and scanning are examined. HighlightsRobustness of the DRPE spread-space spread-spectrum watermarking is investigated.This even spreading characteristic of DRPE suggests good watermarking robustness.Several common geometric transformations and signal processing are performed.The performance of the method is compared to Cox?s additive spread-spectrum.This method is robust to scaling, JPEG, cropping and low/high pass filtering.

Volumetric Light-field Encryption at the Microscopic Scale

We report a light-field based method that allows the optical encryption of three-dimensional (3D) volumetric information at the microscopic scale in a single 2D light-field image. The system consists of a microlens array and an array of random phase/amplitude masks. The method utilizes a wave optics model to account for the dominant diffraction effect at this new scale, and the system point-spread function (PSF) serves as the key for encryption and decryption. We successfully developed and demonstrated a deconvolution algorithm to retrieve both spatially multiplexed discrete data and continuous volumetric data from 2D light-field images. Showing that the method is practical for data transmission and storage, we obtained a faithful reconstruction of the 3D volumetric information from a digital copy of the encrypted light-field image. The method represents a new level of optical encryption, paving the way for broad industrial and biomedical applications in processing and securing 3D data at the microscopic scale.

Phase-retrieval-based attacks on linear-canonical-transform-based DRPE systems

The hybrid input-output algorithm, error reduction algorithm, and combinations of both phase retrieval algorithms are applied to perform ciphertext-only attacks on linear canonical transform (LCT)-based amplitude encoding double-random-phase encryption (DRPE) systems. Special cases of LCT-based DRPE systems, i.e., Fourier-transform-based, fractional-Fourier-transform-based, and Fresnel-transform-based DRPE, can also be successfully attacked using the method proposed. Numerical simulations are performed to demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed attacking method.

Beam self-cleanup by use of self-written waveguide generated by photopolymerization.

A novel method for multimode fiber (MMF) laser-beam cleanup is introduced based on the optically induced growth and interaction of self-written waveguides (SWWs) in a photopolymer material. Theoretically, it is predicted that when the light is introduced into a free-radical photopolymerizable system from a MMF, the incident multichannel and structured beam shape can be caused to merge to form a single-channel Gaussian-like beam under specific exposure and material conditions. Experimental validation was carried out using a dry acrylamide/polyvinyl alcohol (AA/PVA) photopolymer sample. This work opens the door to studies involving self-developing laser beam cleanup and also to possible applications in photonic telecommunication systems and integrated optical devices.

Additive discrete 1D linear canonical transform

The continuous linear canonical transforms (LCT) can describe a wide variety of wave field propagations through paraxial (first order) optical systems. Digital algorithms to numerically calculate the LCT are therefore important in modelling scalar wave field propagations and are also of interest for many digital signal processing applications. The continuous LCT is additive, but discretization can remove this property. In this paper we discuss three special cases of the LCT for which constraints can be identified to ensure the DLCT is additive.

Space-variant defocused content removal in Photon-counted volumetric datasets

A maximum likelihood estimator is derived to reconstruct a 3D scene captured under photons starved ambiences using computational integral imaging system. Here, we present a method to discard the defocused sparse-samples from the reconstructed 3D sectional images.