A robust image encryption scheme using state-feedback control

In recent years, the security of multimedia data transmitted over insecure networks like the Internet has gained a lot of attention. Applying standard cryptographic encryption and authentication algorithms to multimedia data is not feasible because multimedia data may undergo certain content preserving operations that although may change the data values but keep the semantic of the data intact. In this paper, we propose a robust encryption algorithm for digital images that not only provides confidentiality to the image being transmitted or stored, but it can also tolerate JPEG compression. The proposed algorithm is private key i.e. the encryption and decryption process requires the same key. This paper presents an interesting approach by adapting techniques from modern control theory to devise the proposed encryption and decryption algorithms. The results reported in this paper are extremely encouraging and reflects the point that how multi-disciplinary fields can be combined to solve complex problems.