A new and secure digital image scrambling algorithm based on 2D cellular automata

In this work, a new and secure digital image scrambling algorithm for grayscale images is presented. The main goal of this algorithm is to change and reorder the positions of the pixel values of the grayscale images according to the rules of Conway's Game of Life. For this purpose, an image scrambling matrix is proposed. The proposed algorithm is mostly applied to known benchmark images of various sizes and histograms. Moreover, the proposed algorithm is applied to noisy and low-contrast images to evaluate the performance of the algorithm in consumer applications. The scrambling performance of the algorithm is examined through the evaluation of the correlation values between adjacent pixels in horizontal, vertical, and diagonal directions and the gray difference degree between a pixel value and its neighbor pixel values of the plain and scrambled images. Furthermore, the performance of our algorithm is compared to various state-of-the-art methods. Additionally, in order to measure the reliability of the algorithm, we perform attack analyses such as damage and occlusion. Results show that the proposed algorithm is robust and ensures high security with a powerful scrambling performance. Finally, the proposed algorithm can be used in applications providing security of information, such as image encryption and watermarking.

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