A novel image encryption algorithm based on self-adaptive wave transmission

Based on self-adaptive wave transmission, a novel image encryption algorithm is given in this paper. The advantages of our proposed approach are that it can be realized easily and is computationally simple while achieving high security level, high speed, high sensitivity and other properties simultaneously. Wave transmission encryption, as the name suggests, is a way to change the gray-level value of pixels by simulating waves' transmission. The self-adaptive encryption is carried out by using one half of image data to encrypt the other half of the image mutually. Our algorithm can encrypt image in parallel and be also applied to color image encryption. Simulation results for a gray-level and a color image have demonstrated the high performance on the sensitivity, speed, and security of the proposed algorithm. Even in the first round the change rate of the number of pixels in the cipher-image when only one pixel of the plain-image is modified (NPCR) and the unified average changing intensity (UACI) are already very high (NPCR > 0.995, UACI > 0.334), only 2 rounds encryption can satisfy the performance and security requirement. Besides, our algorithm is faster than state of the art techniques, as far as parallel encryption is concerned, the time consumption will be much less. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.