Optical data security system using phase extraction scheme via single-pixel detection

Single-pixel imaging via phase extraction is presented for optical security and flexibility enhancement. A series of random intensity patterns are pregenerated as principal security keys and are sequentially encoded into phase-only masks. Since different optical sensing infrastructures can be arbitrarily designed for the extraction of phase-only masks and object encoding, high flexibility and high security with a largely indirect space for phase are achieved in the proposed optical security system. This finding may advance single-pixel correlated imaging as a quantum or classical technology with potential for significantly enriching the security field.