{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,31]],"date-time":"2026-03-31T14:39:49Z","timestamp":1774967989892,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":53,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"8","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,4,12]],"date-time":"2022-04-12T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1649721600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sensors"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Advances in information technology have harnessed the application of Quick Response (QR) codes in day-to-day activities, simplifying information exchange. QR codes are witnessed almost everywhere, on consumables, newspapers, information bulletins, etc. The simplicity of QR code creation and ease of scanning with free software have tremendously influenced their wide usage, and since QR codes place information on an object they are a tool for the IoT. Many healthcare IoT applications are deployed with QR codes for data-labeling and quick transfer of clinical data for rapid diagnosis. However, these codes can be duplicated and tampered with easily, attributed to open- source QR code generators and scanners. This paper presents a novel (n,n) secret-sharing scheme based on Nonnegative Matrix Factorization (NMF) for secured transfer of QR codes as multiple shares and their reconstruction with a regularized Super Resolution Convolutional Neural Network (SRCNN). This scheme is an alternative to the existing polynomial and visual cryptography-based schemes, exploiting NMF in part-based data representation and structural regularized SRCNN to capture the structural elements of the QR code in the super-resolved image. The experimental results and theoretical analyses show that the proposed method is a potential solution for secured exchange of QR codes with different error correction levels. The security of the proposed approach is evaluated with the difficulty in launching security attacks to recover and decode the secret QR code. The experimental results show that an adversary must try 258 additional combinations of shares and perform 3 \u00d7 288 additional computations, compared to a representative approach, to compromise the proposed system.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/s22082959","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,4,12]],"date-time":"2022-04-12T22:48:45Z","timestamp":1649803725000},"page":"2959","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":22,"title":["Secured Secret Sharing of QR Codes Based on Nonnegative Matrix Factorization and Regularized Super Resolution Convolutional Neural Network"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"22","author":[{"given":"Ramesh","family":"Velumani","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Aruppukottai 626101, India"}]},{"given":"Hariharasitaraman","family":"Sudalaimuthu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Computing Science and Engineering (SCSE), VIT Bhopal University, Bhopal 466114, India"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3378-2945","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Gaurav","family":"Choudhary","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"DTU Compute, Technical University of Denmark (DTU), 2800 Lyngby, Denmark"}]},{"given":"Srinivasan","family":"Bama","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Kalasalingam Academy of Research and Education Krishnankovil, Srivilliputtur 626128, India"}]},{"given":"Maranthiran Victor","family":"Jose","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Noorul Islam Centre for Higher Education Kumaracoil, Thucklay, Kanyakumari 673012, India"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9575-2990","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Nicola","family":"Dragoni","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"DTU Compute, Technical University of Denmark (DTU), 2800 Lyngby, Denmark"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,4,12]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"10653","DOI":"10.1007\/s11042-022-12357-6","article-title":"QRnet: Fast learning-based QR code image embedding","volume":"81","author":"Lau","year":"2022","journal-title":"Multimed. Tools Appl."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"629","DOI":"10.1016\/j.procs.2022.01.077","article-title":"A Food anti-counterfeiting traceability system based on Blockchain and Internet of Things","volume":"199","author":"Lu","year":"2022","journal-title":"Procedia Comput. Sci."},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"779","DOI":"10.1109\/TCE.2011.5955222","article-title":"Reversible data hiding with histogram-based difference expansion for QR code applications","volume":"57","author":"Huang","year":"2011","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Consum. Electron."},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"59","DOI":"10.5815\/ijmecs.2012.06.08","article-title":"Advanced Steganography Algorithm Using Randomized Intermediate QR Host Embedded With Any Encrypted Secret Message: ASA_QR Algorithm","volume":"4","author":"Dey","year":"2012","journal-title":"Int. J. Mod. Educ. Comput. Sci."},{"key":"ref_5","first-page":"29","article-title":"A Digital Watermark Algorithm for QR Code","volume":"2","author":"Li","year":"2011","journal-title":"Int. J. Intell. Inf. Process."},{"key":"ref_6","unstructured":"Rungraungsilp, S., Ketcham, M., Kosolvijak, V., and Vongpradhip, S. (2012, January 23\u201325). Data hiding method for QR code based on watermark by compare DCT with DFT domain. Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Computer and Communication Technologies, Allahabad, India."},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Gao, M., and Sun, B. (2011). Blind Watermark Algorithm Based on QR Barcode. Foundations of Intelligent Systems, Springer.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-642-25664-6_52"},{"key":"ref_8","first-page":"2527","article-title":"Blind QR Code Steganographic Approach Based upon Error Correction Capability","volume":"7","author":"Chiang","year":"2013","journal-title":"KSII Trans. Internet Inf. Syst."},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"383","DOI":"10.1007\/s11036-016-0772-y","article-title":"QR Code Authentication with Embedded Message Authentication Code","volume":"22","author":"Chen","year":"2017","journal-title":"Mob. Netw. Appl."},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Siribunyaphat, N., and Punsawad, Y. (2022). Steady-State Visual Evoked Potential-Based Brain\u2013Computer Interface Using a Novel Visual Stimulus with Quick Response (QR) Code Pattern. Sensors, 22.","DOI":"10.3390\/s22041439"},{"key":"ref_11","first-page":"e22431","article-title":"Denture Marking for Forensic Identification Using Laser-Marked Stainless Steel Quick Response (QR) Code","volume":"14","author":"Colvenkar","year":"2022","journal-title":"Cureus"},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3069","DOI":"10.1021\/nn500614k","article-title":"Immunochromatographic Diagnostic Test Analysis Using Google Glass","volume":"8","author":"Feng","year":"2014","journal-title":"ACS Nano"},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"107","DOI":"10.1016\/j.nepr.2016.03.007","article-title":"Just in time? Using QR codes for multi-professional learning in clinical practice","volume":"19","author":"Jamu","year":"2016","journal-title":"Nurse Educ. Pract."},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"5943","DOI":"10.1039\/C7AY01645J","article-title":"Google Analytics and quick response for advancement of gold nanoparticle-based dual lateral flow immunoassay for malaria\u2013Plasmodium lactate dehydrogenase (pLDH)","volume":"9","author":"Mthembu","year":"2017","journal-title":"Anal. Methods"},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"111","DOI":"10.1002\/env.3170050203","article-title":"Positive matrix factorization: A non-negative factor model with optimal utilization of error estimates of data values","volume":"5","author":"Paatero","year":"1994","journal-title":"Environmetrics"},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"295","DOI":"10.1109\/TPAMI.2015.2439281","article-title":"Image Super-Resolution Using Deep Convolutional Networks","volume":"38","author":"Dong","year":"2016","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Intell."},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Tsai, C.-S., Chen, H.-L., Wu, H.-C., and Ying, J.J.-C. (2021). A Puzzle-Based Data Sharing Approach with Cheating Prevention Using QR Code. Symmetry, 13.","DOI":"10.3390\/sym13101896"},{"key":"ref_18","unstructured":"Naor, M., and Shamir, A. (1994, January 9\u201312). Visual cryptography. Proceedings of the Workshop on the Theory and Application of Cryptographic Techniques, Perugia, Italy."},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"765","DOI":"10.1016\/S0097-8493(02)00131-0","article-title":"Secret image sharing","volume":"26","author":"Thien","year":"2002","journal-title":"Comput. Graph."},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1070","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jss.2006.11.022","article-title":"Improvements of image sharing with steganography and authentication","volume":"80","author":"Yang","year":"2007","journal-title":"J. Syst. Softw."},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"120","DOI":"10.4018\/IJDCF.2018040107","article-title":"Polynomial-Based Secret Image Sharing Scheme with Fully Lossless Recovery","volume":"10","author":"Ding","year":"2018","journal-title":"Int. J. Digit. Crime Forensics"},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Zhou, X., Lu, Y., Yan, X., Wang, Y., and Liu, L. (2018). Lossless and Efficient Polynomial-Based Secret Image Sharing with Reduced Shadow Size. Symmetry, 10.","DOI":"10.3390\/sym10070249"},{"key":"ref_23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"301","DOI":"10.1016\/j.sigpro.2017.06.015","article-title":"A (n, n) threshold non-expansible XOR based visual cryptography with unique meaningful shares","volume":"142","author":"Singh","year":"2018","journal-title":"Signal Process."},{"key":"ref_24","unstructured":"OWASP (2020, September 29). Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF). Available online: https:\/\/www.owasp.org\/index.php\/Cross-Site_Request_Forgery_(CSRF)."},{"key":"ref_25","unstructured":"OWASP (2020, September 29). Cross-Site Scripting (XSS). Available online: https:\/\/www.owasp.org\/index.php\/Cross-site_Scripting_(XSS)."},{"key":"ref_26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Krombholz, K., Fr\u00fchwirt, P., Kieseberg, P., Kapsalis, I., Huber, M., and Weippl, E. (2014, January 22\u201327). QR Code Security: A Survey of Attacks and Challenges for Usable Security. Proceedings of the International Conference on Human Aspects of Information Security, Privacy, and Trust, Heraklion, Greece.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-319-07620-1_8"},{"key":"ref_27","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"384","DOI":"10.1109\/TII.2015.2514097","article-title":"Distributed Secret Sharing Approach with Cheater Prevention based on QR Code","volume":"12","author":"Lin","year":"2016","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Ind. Inform."},{"key":"ref_28","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"25","DOI":"10.1007\/s11554-017-0678-3","article-title":"Visual secret sharing scheme for (k, n) threshold based on QR code with multiple decryptions","volume":"14","author":"Wan","year":"2018","journal-title":"J. Real-Time Image Process."},{"key":"ref_29","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Chow, Y.W., Susilo, W., Yang, G., Phillips, J.G., Pranata, I., and Barmawi, A.M. (2016, January 4\u20136). Exploiting the error correction mechanism in QR codes for secret sharing. Proceedings of the Australasian Conference on Information Security and Privacy, Melbourne, Australia.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-319-40253-6_25"},{"key":"ref_30","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Chow, Y.-W., Susilo, W., Tonien, J., Vlahu-Gjorgievska, E., and Yang, G. (2018). Cooperative Secret Sharing Using QR Codes and Symmetric Keys. Symmetry, 10.","DOI":"10.3390\/sym10040095"},{"key":"ref_31","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Liu, T., Yan, B., and Pan, J.-S. (2019). Color Visual Secret Sharing for QR Code with Perfect Module Reconstruction. Appl. Sci., 9.","DOI":"10.3390\/app9214670"},{"key":"ref_32","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"7937816","DOI":"10.1155\/2019\/7937816","article-title":"A Novel Three-Layer QR Code Based on Secret Sharing Scheme and Liner Code","volume":"2019","author":"Yu","year":"2019","journal-title":"Secur. Commun. Netw."},{"key":"ref_33","first-page":"102719","article-title":"Enhanced (n, n)-threshold QR code secret sharing scheme based on error correction mechanism","volume":"58","author":"Huang","year":"2021","journal-title":"J. Inf. Secur. Appl."},{"key":"ref_34","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"103409","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jvcir.2021.103409","article-title":"Visual secret sharing scheme with (n, n) threshold based on WeChat Mini Program codes","volume":"82","author":"Chen","year":"2022","journal-title":"J. Vis. Commun. Image Represent."},{"key":"ref_35","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"777","DOI":"10.1007\/s10898-017-0515-z","article-title":"DC-NMF: Nonnegative matrix factorization based on di-vide-and-conquer for fast clustering and topic modeling","volume":"68","author":"Du","year":"2017","journal-title":"J. Glob. Optim."},{"key":"ref_36","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"788","DOI":"10.1038\/44565","article-title":"Learning the parts of objects by non-negative matrix factorization","volume":"401","author":"Lee","year":"1999","journal-title":"Nature"},{"key":"ref_37","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3055","DOI":"10.1007\/s11277-018-5325-1","article-title":"Supervised and Constrained Nonnegative Matrix Factorization with Sparseness for Image Representation","volume":"102","author":"Cai","year":"2018","journal-title":"Wirel. Pers. Commun."},{"key":"ref_38","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"506","DOI":"10.1007\/s12559-018-9546-0","article-title":"Rank-Adaptive Non-Negative Matrix Factorization","volume":"10","author":"Shan","year":"2018","journal-title":"Cogn. Comput."},{"key":"ref_39","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"259","DOI":"10.1016\/j.neuroimage.2017.11.003","article-title":"Collective sparse symmetric non-negative matrix factorization for identifying overlapping communities in resting-state brain functional networks","volume":"166","author":"Li","year":"2018","journal-title":"NeuroImage"},{"key":"ref_40","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"754","DOI":"10.4028\/www.scientific.net\/AMM.577.754","article-title":"A Secure Image Watermarking Using Visual Cryptography and Discrete Fractional Fourier Transform","volume":"577","author":"Wang","year":"2014","journal-title":"Appl. Mech. Mater."},{"key":"ref_41","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Huang, T.-Y., Lin, C.-Y., Chang, M.-K., and Kuo, C.-C. (2017, January 12\u201314). Secret sharing based on part-based factorization for Chinese characters. Proceedings of the 2017 IEEE International Conference on Consumer Electronics-Taiwan (ICCE-TW), Taipei, Taiwan.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICCE-China.2017.7991069"},{"key":"ref_42","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1995","DOI":"10.1186\/s40064-016-3639-6","article-title":"Robust image hashing using ring partition-PGNMF and local features","volume":"5","author":"Karsh","year":"2016","journal-title":"SpringerPlus"},{"key":"ref_43","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"958","DOI":"10.1364\/AO.56.000958","article-title":"Image multiplexing and encryption using the nonnegative matrix factorization method adopting digital holography","volume":"56","author":"Chang","year":"2017","journal-title":"Appl. Opt."},{"key":"ref_44","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1973","DOI":"10.1109\/TMM.2018.2794985","article-title":"A Novel Digital Watermarking Based on General Non-Negative Matrix Factorization","volume":"20","author":"Chen","year":"2018","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Multimed."},{"key":"ref_45","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Weir, J., and Yan, W. (June, January 30). Resolution variant visual cryptography for street view of Google Maps. Proceedings of the 2010 IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems, Paris, France.","DOI":"10.1109\/ISCAS.2010.5537511"},{"key":"ref_46","unstructured":"Wu, X., Wong, D.S., and Li, Q. (2010, January 26\u201328). Extended Visual Cryptography Scheme for color images with no pixel expansion. Proceedings of the 2010 International Conference on Security and Cryptography (SECRYPT), Athens, Greece."},{"key":"ref_47","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2861","DOI":"10.1109\/TIP.2010.2050625","article-title":"Image Super-Resolution Via Sparse Representation","volume":"19","author":"Yang","year":"2010","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Image Process."},{"key":"ref_48","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1127","DOI":"10.1109\/TPAMI.2010.25","article-title":"Single-Image Super-Resolution Using Sparse Regression and Natural Image Prior","volume":"32","author":"Kim","year":"2010","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Intell."},{"key":"ref_49","unstructured":"Yang, J., Wright, J., Huang, T., and Ma, Y. (2020, January 14\u201319). Image super-resolution as sparse representation of raw image patches. Proceedings of the 2008 IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, Seattle, WA, USA."},{"key":"ref_50","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Szentandr\u00e1si, I., Herout, A., and Dubsk\u00e1, M. (2012, January 2\u20134). Fast detection and recognition of QR codes in high-resolution images. Proceedings of the 28th spring conference on computer graphics, Smolenice, Slovakia.","DOI":"10.1145\/2448531.2448548"},{"key":"ref_51","unstructured":"(2020, September 29). Available online: https:\/\/github.com\/zxing\/zxing."},{"key":"ref_52","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Cichocki, A., Zdunek, R., Phan, A.H., and Amari, S.I. (2009). Nonnegative Matrix and Tensor Factorizations: Applications to Exploratory Multi-Way Data Analysis and Blind Source Separation, John Wiley & Sons.","DOI":"10.1002\/9780470747278"},{"key":"ref_53","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Dang, S., Cui, Z., Cao, Z., Liu, Y., and Min, R. (2017, January 8\u201312). SAR target recognition via incremental nonnegative matrix factorization with Lp sparse constraint. Proceedings of the 2017 IEEE Radar Conference (RadarConf), Seattle, WA, USA.","DOI":"10.1109\/RADAR.2017.7944260"}],"container-title":["Sensors"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1424-8220\/22\/8\/2959\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,10]],"date-time":"2025-10-10T22:52:45Z","timestamp":1760136765000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1424-8220\/22\/8\/2959"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2022,4,12]]},"references-count":53,"journal-issue":{"issue":"8","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,4]]}},"alternative-id":["s22082959"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/s22082959","relation":{},"ISSN":["1424-8220"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1424-8220","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2022,4,12]]}}}