Optical Techniques for Information Security

TLDR

Optical waveforms provide many degrees of freedom—amplitude, phase, polarization, spectral content, and multiplexing—that, together with interferometric and holographic recording techniques, enable secure encoding of two‑ and three‑dimensional data and optical ID tags. This paper reviews free‑space optical technologies for encrypting, authenticating, and securing two‑ and three‑dimensional information, including ID tags. The review covers holographic, interferometric, and visible/near‑infrared imaging methods used to encrypt data and authenticate optical ID tags.

Abstract

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.