Abstract
A novel optical encryption technique that uses oscillations on a liquid lens surface and random phase masks to encode images is presented. Excited liquid surface patterns can encode optical wave fronts, making the optical transfer function of the system a function of time. This allows for possible protection against known and chosen plaintext attacks and potentially enables more flexible realizations of random phase mask security systems. However, the periodic nature of liquid surface oscillations and the geometry of the patterns can potentially place constraints on the efficacy of such a system. Simulation results show that the entropy of encrypted images depends on the liquid surface mode shape and the recording duration of the encrypted image. Additionally, it is shown that mistiming the liquid system during decryption gives significant error in the recovered images. The simulations presented here use a model of a commercial available liquid lens, giving the possibility for future comparison with experimental results.