Importance

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Abstract

A digital camera method and apparatus providing encryption of an image during the acquisition process, and therefore avoiding any stage wherein unencrypted image data exists. An encrypted password is generated. This is done either by a user and downloaded to the camera, or it is generated in the camera and displayed to the user. Inside the camera, an encryption generator is initialized upon reception and successful decryption of the password, whereupon light is admitted from an object to be photographed and converted to digital image data. The camera then performs a first encrypting operation on the digital image data to create temporarily encrypted image data. This encrypted data is saved temporarily, whereupon it is decrypted in increments and each increment processed to form processed image data. Each increment then undergoes a second and final encryption operation to create final encrypted image data which is stored in the camera for transmission to a computer. Alternatively to storing encrypted data temporarily, if the quantity of image data can be handled in one step it is processed directly and then encrypted and saved in camera storage. Therefore, at no stage in the image acquisition is there a point where image data is stored in unencrypted form from which unauthorized access might be obtained.

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First Claim