Multimedia Content Encryption for Secure Multimedia Communication

The principal concern of this chapter is to provide those in the secure multimedia communication or content protection community with an overview of multimedia content encryption technology. Multimedia (image, audio or video) content encryption technologies are reviewed, from the background, brief history, and performance requirement, to research progress. Additionally, the general encryption algorithms are classified, and their performances are analyzed and compared. Furthermore, some special encryption algorithms are introduced. Finally, some open issues and potential research topics are presented, followed by some conclusions. The author hopes that the chapter will not only inform researchers of the progress of multimedia content encryption but also guide the design of practical applications in industry field.