A Nano-Based Quantum-Inspired XOR Gate for Secure Image Masking

There has been increasing attention to Quantum dot-Cellular Automata (QCA) technology in nanotechnology due to its low energy consumption, low complexity, small footprint, and low latency. At the same time, image masking and security are the latest innovations in nanotechnology, providing high-performance, low-energy design methodologies for arithmetic circuits. Nano communication, which uses nanodevices and QCA cells, needs improved security features. Therefore, this paper proposes a method to generate image masks using QCA. An encoder circuit is developed to generate the masked image. The mask image is useful for restoring the original image, even when the secret key is unknown. Image masking involves encrypting an image with a random key to produce the cypher image. After that, the cypher image is added to the original image to form the mask image, which serves as the obscured dataset for users. Using the mask image, one could restore the image from another cypher image created with the same set of random keys, while keeping the key hidden. The proposed QCA encoder produces the mask image to achieve security. The efficiency of the designs was proved by functional verification using QCADesigner. Results from the simulation show that the designs not only operate efficiently but also perform much better than previous designs in both time and space utilization. These optimized designs have shown greater efficiency than other circuit designs.

کلیدواژه ها:

Quantum-Dot ، Encoder ، Security ، Mask ، Image ، QCADesigner ، Low cell