Vedic Multiplier based Medical Image Encryption – A VLSI Approach

The protection of medical image data is more crucial as telemedicine continues to advance. The use of encryption techniques can serve as an approach to safeguard sensitive information pertaining to medical images. Software-based encryption solutions exhibit reduced computational efficiency and are susceptible to security vulnerabilities. The efficacy of flexible platform-based approaches surpasses that of alternative methods. The integration of prevailing image encryption systems with typical scrambling diffusion algorithms presents a challenge due to the inherent trade-off between real-time speed and security, since the number of scrambling diffusion cycles directly impacts both aspects. The encryption method employed in this study involves the utilization of a Linear Feedback Shift Register (LFSR) as the confusion unit and a Vedic multiplier for the diffusion process. This technique demonstrates a reduction in resource utilization and power dissipation due to the utilization of hardware-friendly designs for the diffusion and confusion modules. To ensure the efficacy of the proposed medical image encryption technique, several statistical measures such as entropy, peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR), histograms, and correlation factors were computed from a security perspective. Furthermore, the unpredictability of the key was evaluated by the use of the NIST SP 800-22 test.