Over the years extensive studies have been carried out to apply coherent optics methods in real-time communications and image transmission. This is especially true when a large amount of information needs to be processed, e.g., in high-resolution imaging. The recent progress in data-processing networks and communication systems has considerably increased the capacity of information exchange. However, the transmitted data can be intercepted by nonauthorized people. This explains why considerable effort is being devoted at the current time to data encryption and secure transmission. In addition, only a small part of the overall information is really useful for many applications. Consequently, applications can tolerate information compression that requires important processing when the transmission bit rate is taken into account. To enable efficient and secure information exchange, it is often necessary to reduce the amount of transmitted information. In this context, much work has been undertaken using the principle of coherent optics filtering for selecting relevant information and encrypting it. Compression and encryption operations are often carried out separately, although they are strongly related and can influence each other. Optical processing methodologies, based on filtering, are described that are applicable to transmission and/or data storage. Finally, the advantages and limitations of a set of optical compression and encryption methods are discussed.

Underwater target detection is investigated by combining active polarization imaging and optical correlation-based approaches. Experiments were conducted in a glass tank filled with tap water with diluted milk or seawater and containing targets of arbitrary polarimetric responses. We found that target estimation obtained by imaging with two orthogonal polarization states always improves detection performances when correlation is used as detection criterion. This experimental study illustrates the potential of polarization imaging for underwater target detection and opens interesting perspectives for the development of underwater imaging systems.

We propose and analyze a dual encryption/decryption scheme, motivated by recent interest in polarization encoding. Compared to standard optical encryption methods, which are based on phase and amplitude manipulation, this encryption procedure relying on Mueller–Stokes formalism provides large flexibility in the key encryption design. The effectiveness of our algorithm is discussed, thanks to a numerical simulation of the polarization encryption/decryption procedure of a 256 gray-level image. Of additional special interest is the immunity of this encryption algorithm to brute force attacks.

Here we present a new approach of multiplexing and simultaneous encoding of target images. Our approach can enhance the encryption level of a classical double random phase (DRP) encryption system by adding a supplementary security layer. The new approach can be divided into two security layers. The first layer is called the multiplexing level, which consists in using iterative Fourier transformations along with several encryption key images. These latter can be a set of biometric images. At the second layer, we use a classical DRP system. The two layers enable us to encode several target images (multi-encryption) and to reduce, at the same time, the requested decoded information (transmitted or storage information).

We report on an algorithm to compress and encrypt simultaneously multiple images (target images). This method, which is based upon a specific spectral multiplexing (fusion without overlapping) of the multiple images, aims to achieve a single encrypted image, at the output plane of our system, that contains all information needed to reconstruct the target images. For that purpose, we divide the Fourier plane of the image to transmit into two types of area, i.e., specific and common areas to each target image. A segmentation criterion taking into account the rms duration of each target image spectrum is proposed. This approach, which consists of merging the input target images together (in the Fourier plane) allows us to reduce the information to be stored and/or transmitted (compression) and induce noise on the output image (encryption). To achieve a good encryption level, a first key image (containing biometric information and providing the intellectual property of the target images) is used. A second encryption key is inserted in the Fourier plane to ensure a relevant phase distribution of the different merged spectra. We also discuss how the encoding information can be optimized by minimizing the number of bits required to encode each pixel.

Visible light communication (VLC) has become a promising technology for high data rate communications and an attractive complementary to conventional radio frequency (RF) communication. VLC is a secure, energy efficient and cost-effective technology that exploits the existing infrastructure, particularly in indoor environments, for wireless data transmission. Nevertheless, the main limitation of developing high data rate VLC links is the narrow modulation bandwidth of light-emitting diodes (LEDs), which is in the megahertz range. The power domain nonorthogonal multiple access (PD-NOMA) scheme is envisioned to address several challenges in VLC systems. In this paper, we present a detailed overview of PD-NOMA based VLC systems. Moreover, we introduce insights on some PD-NOMA VLC system constraints and challenges such as power allocation, clipping effect, MIMO and security. Finally, we provide open research problems as well as possible directions for future research to pave the way for the implementation of PD-NOMA VLC systems.