System and method of applying adaptive privacy control layers to encoded media file types

• US 10,169,597 B2
• Filed: 12/31/2016
• Issued: 01/01/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 12/31/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Entefy Inc.
• Original Assignee: Entefy Inc.
• Inventors: Ghafourifar, Alston, Michelsen, Wayne
• Primary Examiner(s): Pyzocha, Michael
• Application Number:
  US15/396,496
• Publication Number:
  US 20180189505A1
• Time in Patent Office: 731 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/602 Providing cryptographic facilities or services
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6209 to a single file or object, e.g. in a secure envelope, encrypted and accessed using a key, or with access control rules appended to the object itself
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/629 to features or functions of an application

Abstract

Disclosed are systems to apply customized permission settings to protect particular regions of a document, and, in particular, documents that are of a ‘lossy’ encoded media file type, e.g., an MPEG video format. The custom access permission settings may be implemented by obfuscating the protected regions of the original file and then embedding “secret,” e.g., hidden and/or encrypted, versions of the obfuscated regions in parts of the data structure of the original file, e.g., in the form of “layers” that are held within video stream containers. The content of the individual encrypted video stream containers may then be decrypted according to each recipient'"'"'s permissions and layered on top of the obfuscated regions of the encoded media file before being displayed to the recipient. In some embodiments, additional layers of video may be used to reduce the appearance of aliasing around borders of the protected regions of the encoded media file.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising computer executable instructions stored thereon that when executed cause one or more processing units to:

receive an indication of a first protected region of a file of an encoded media file type that uses lossy compression;

receive first access permission settings for the first protected region;

receive an indication of a first recipient for the first protected region;

generate a first layer representation corresponding to the first protected region, wherein the first layer representation comprises the first protected region of the file and a first pixel margin buffer surrounding the first protected region;

create an edited encoded media file based on the indication of the first protected region, wherein a size of the first pixel margin buffer surrounding the first protected region is determined based, at least in part, on an encoding method used to create the edited encoded media file;

add the first layer representation into one or more containers within the file structure of the edited encoded media file; and

transmit the edited encoded media file to the first recipient, wherein the first layer representation and the edited encoded media file are transmitted to the first recipient simultaneously.

2. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions to create the edited encoded media further include instructions to cause the one or more processing units to:

obfuscate the first protected region.

3. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the first layer representation comprises content located within the first protected region of the file.

4. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the first protected region comprises one or more portions within one or more video frames of the edited encoded media file.

5. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 4, wherein the first protected region further comprises one or more identified objects that are tracked over the one or more video frames of the edited encoded media file.

6. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions further include instructions to cause the one or more processing units to:

encrypt the first layer representation based, at least in part, on the first access permission setting.

7. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 6, wherein the instructions to cause the one or more processing units to encrypt the first layer representation based, at least in part, on the first access permission setting further comprise instructions to cause the one or more processing units to:

utilize a unique encryption key for each recipient of each protected region of the file.

8. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the first layer representation is stored in a Video Object Plane (VOP).

9. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the edited encoded media file is configured such that the first layer representation is only viewable by a recipient in an authorized viewing application.

10. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the first layer representation is configured to be layered on top of the edited encoded media file when an authorized recipient views the file in an authorized viewing application.

11. A system, comprising:

a memory; and

one or more processing units, communicatively coupled to the memory, wherein the memory stores instructions to configure the one or more processing units to;

receive an indication of a first protected region of a file of an encoded media file type that uses lossy compression;

receive first access permission settings for the first protected region;

receive an indication of a first recipient for the first protected region;

generate a first layer representation corresponding to the first protected region, wherein the first layer representation comprises the first protected region of the file and a first pixel margin buffer surrounding the first protected region;

create an edited encoded media file based on the indication of the first protected region, wherein a size of the first pixel margin buffer surrounding the first protected region is determined based, at least in part, on an encoding method used to create the edited encoded media file;

add the first layer representation into one or more containers within the file structure of the edited encoded media file; and

transmit the edited encoded media file to the first recipient, wherein the first layer representation and the edited encoded media file are transmitted to the first recipient simultaneously.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the instructions to create the edited encoded media are further configured to cause the one or more processing units to:

obfuscate the first protected region.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the first layer representation comprises content located within the first protected region of the file.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the first protected region comprises one or more portions within one or more video frames of the edited encoded media file.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the first protected region further comprises one or more identified objects that are tracked over the one or more video frames of the edited encoded media file.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein the instructions further include instructions to cause the one or more processing units to:

encrypt the first layer representation based, at least in part, on the first access permission setting.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the instructions to cause the one or more processing units to encrypt the first layer representation based, at least in part, on the first access permission setting further comprise instructions to cause the one or more processing units to:

utilize a unique encryption key for each recipient of each protected region of the file.

18. The system of claim 11, wherein the first layer representation is stored in a VOP.

19. The system of claim 11, wherein the edited encoded media file is configured such that the first layer representation is only viewable by a recipient in an authorized viewing application.

20. The system of claim 11, wherein the first layer representation is configured to be layered on top of the edited encoded media file when an authorized recipient views the file in an authorized viewing application.

21. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

receiving an indication of a first protected region of a file of an encoded media file type that uses lossy compression;

receiving first access permission settings for the first protected region;

receiving an indication of a first recipient for the first protected region;

generating a first layer representation corresponding to the first protected region, wherein the first layer representation comprises the first protected region of the file and a first pixel margin buffer surrounding the first protected region;

creating an edited encoded media file based on the indication of the first protected region, wherein a size of the first pixel margin buffer surrounding the first protected region is determined based, at least in part, on an encoding method used to create the edited encoded media file;

adding the first layer representation into one or more containers within the file structure of the edited encoded media file; and

transmitting the edited encoded media file to the first recipient, wherein the first layer representation and the edited encoded media file are transmitted to the first recipient simultaneously.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the act of creating the edited encoded media file further comprises obfuscating the first protected region.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein the first layer representation is configured to be layered on top of the edited encoded media file when an authorized recipient views the file in an authorized viewing application.