Secure Object-Based Image Coding Scheme

A secure perceptually motivated object/region-based image coding scheme with effective selective encryption is proposed. An image is represented by an edge image (extracted using a robust morphological edge detection technique), binary mask (identifying arbitrary shaped image objects), and residual image (representing the error after edge-interpolation). The binary mask is encoded using a secure lossless Huffman differential chain code employing pseudorandom switching between 4 codebooks. The locations of the edge segments are arithmetically coded using the Qcoder and the average gray level of each edge segment is encoded.