María S. Millán

Optical Techniques for Information Security

This paper presents an overview of the potential of free space optical technology in information security, encryption, and authentication. Optical waveform posses many degrees of freedom such as amplitude, phase, polarization, spectral content, and multiplexing which can be combined in different ways to make the information encoding more secure. This paper reviews optical techniques for encryption and security of two-dimensional and three-dimensional data. Interferometric methods are used to record and retrieve data by either optical or digital holography for security applications. Digital holograms are widely used in recording and processing three dimensional data, and are attractive for securing three dimensional data. Also, we review optical authentication techniques applied to ID tags with visible and near infrared imaging. A variety of images and signatures, including biometrics, random codes, and primary images can be combined in an optical ID tag for security and authentication.

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.

Photon-counting double-random-phase encoding for secure image verification and retrieval

The integration of photon-counting imaging techniques and optical encryption systems can improve information authentication robustness against intruder attacks. Photon-counting imaging generates distributions with far fewer photons than conventional imaging and provides substantial bandwidth reduction by generating sparse encrypted data. We show that photon-limited encrypted distributions have sufficient information for successful decryption, authentication and signal retrieval. Additional compression of the encrypted distribution is applied by limiting the number of phase values used to reproduce the phase information of the complex-valued encrypted data. The validity of this technique—with and without phase compression—is probed through simulated experiments for two types of input images: alphanumerical signs and dithered natural scenes.

Multipoint phase calibration for improved compensation of inherent wavefront distortion in parallel aligned liquid crystal on silicon displays

The inherent distortion of a reflective parallel aligned spatial light modulator (SLM) may need compensation not only for the backplane curvature but also for other possible nonuniformities caused by thickness variations of the liquid crystal layer across the aperture. First, we build a global look-up table (LUT) of phase modulation versus the addressed gray level for the whole device aperture. Second, when a lack of spatial uniformity is observed, we define a grid of cells onto the SLM aperture and develop a multipoint calibration. The relative phase variations between neighboring cells for a uniform gray level lead us to build a multi-LUT for improved compensation. Multipoint calibration can be done using either phase-shift interferometry or Fourier diffraction pattern analysis of binary phase gratings. Experimental results show the compensation progress in diffractive optical elements displayed on two SLMs.

Automatic method based on image analysis for pilling evaluation in fabrics

A fully automatic method for pilling evaluation in wear-and- tear fabrics is developed from the image analysis of a set of standard photographs (Zweigle KG-741 Reutlingen). The method involves opera- tions in both the spatial and frequency domains to segment pills from the textured background of the web. It calculates the total area of pilling in the sample image and assigns a degree of pilling according to the stan- dard. Two mathematical descriptions are analyzed according to the un- derlying rule established by the standard images, using the visual esti- mation of the area of pilling performed by a group of observers. A logarithmic (in base two) approach, which is consistent with human vi- sual perception laws and facilitates an optimization of the method, is eventually adopted.

Modeling of woven fabric structures based on Fourier image analysis

The periodic woven structures of fabrics can be defined on the basis of the convolution theorem. Here an elementary unit with the minimum number of thread crossings and a nonrectangular two-dimensional comb function for the pattern of repetition is used to define woven structures. The expression derived is more compact than the conventional diagram for weaving, and the parameters that one needs to determine a given fabric can easily be extracted from its Fourier transform. Several results with real samples of the most common structures-plain, twill, and satin-are presented.

Fourier-domain-based angular correlation for quasiperiodic pattern recognition. Applications to web inspection

A Fourier-domain-based recognition technique is proposed for periodic and quasiperiodic pattern recognition. It is based on the angular correlation of the moduli of the sample and the reference Fourier spectra centered at the maximum central point. As in other correlation techniques, recognition is achieved when a high correlation peak is obtained, and this result occurs when the two spectra coincide. The angular correlation is a one-dimensional function of the rotation angle. The position of the correlation peak indicates the rotation angle between two similar patterns in the original images. Some optimizations for the discrete calculation of the Fourier-domain-based angular correlation are also proposed. Some applications of this technique to web inspection tasks, such as pattern recognition and classification, damaged web evaluation, and detection of defects, are presented and discussed.

Dynamic compensation of chromatic aberration in a programmable diffractive lens

A proposal to dynamically compensate chromatic aberration of a programmable phase Fresnel lens displayed on a liquid crystal device and working under broadband illumination is presented. It is based on time multiplexing a set of lenses, designed with a common focal length for different wavelengths, and a tunable spectral filter that makes each sublens work almost monochromatically. Both the tunable filter and the sublens displayed by the spatial light modulator are synchronized. The whole set of sublenses are displayed within the integration time of the sensor. As a result the central order focalization has a unique location at the focal plane and it is common for all selected wavelengths. Transversal chromatic aberration of the polychromatic point spread function is reduced by properly adjusting the pupil size of each sublens. Longitudinal chromatic aberration is compensated by making depth of focus curves coincident for the selected wavelengths. Experimental results are in very good agreement with theory.

Weave-repeat identification by structural analysis of fabric images

Two descriptions of the image of a web structure, a convolution model and an additive model, in both the spatial and frequency domains, are combined in the design of a method to extract information about the fabric structure by image analysis. The method allows the extraction of the conventional and also the minimal weave repeats, their size in terms of number of threads, their interlacing patterns, and their patterns of repetition. It is applicable to fabrics with square and nonsquare conventional weave repeat. Experimental results with image of real samples are presented and discussed.

Different strategies in optical recognition of polychromatic images

We treat two different problems in the recognition of polychromatic images: (1) recognition of an object with a given shape and color combination; (2) recognition of an object regardless of its color combination. To solve each problem we propose different strategies. The number of filters and the objects to which the filters are matched vary with the strategy. Phase-only filters have been used to achieve recognition of both problems. Computer results are given for different targets and scenes to show the behavior of the proposed strategies.