Digitally watermarking physical media

• US 20020146148A1
• Filed: 09/20/2001
• Published: 10/10/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 04/06/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Digimarc Corporation
• Original Assignee: Digimarc Corporation
• Inventors: Levy, Kenneth L.
• Granted Patent: US 7,248,715 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/100
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/0021 Image watermarking
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2201/0051 Embedding of the watermark in the spatial domain
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2201/0064 for copy protection or copy management, e.g. CGMS, copy only once, one-time copy

Abstract

A digital watermark is embedded through varying pit locations on a data side of a CD, SACD or DVD. In one embodiment, a pattern of pits or data indentations forms a visual design on the data side. A watermark is embedded by slightly varying various pit locations within the visual design. In another embodiment, the varied pit locations are imperceptible or nearly imperceptible to human observation. The digital watermark is used as a counterfeit deterrent and as an identifier. Once extracted, the identifier is used to link to related content via the internet.

Claims

1. A method comprising the steps of:

arranging pit locations to form a digital watermark; and

applying arranged pit locations to physical media.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the arranged pit locations comprise a visual design.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the visual design is applied to the physical media.

4. The method according to claim 2, wherein the digital watermark is imperceptible in comparison to the visual design.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the physical media comprises one of at least a SACD, CD, DVD, laser disc, and mini-disc.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the digital watermark is detectable from a two-dimensional area comprising the arranged pit locations.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein the two-dimensional area is capturable by a digital camera for watermark detection.

8. A method comprising the steps of:

altering a pit-pattern of a visual design to embed a digital watermark therein; and

applying the embedded visual design to physical media.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein the physical media comprises one of at least a SACD, CD, DVD, laser disc, and mini-disc.

10. The method according to claim 8, wherein said applying step comprises pit-signal processing.

11. The method according to claim 8, wherein the digital watermark is imperceptible in comparison to the visual design.

12. The method according to claim 8, wherein the visual design comprises a visual watermark.

14. The media according to claim 13, wherein the media comprises one of at least a SACD, CD, DVD, laser disc, and mini-disc.

15. The media according to claim 13, wherein varying pit locations of a subset of the plurality of pits embeds the digital watermark.

16. The media according to claim 13, wherein the visual design comprises a visible watermark.

17. The media according to claim 16, further comprising a watermark embedded within data stored on the media.

19. The method according to claim 18, further comprising a step of authenticating the media by successfully completing said linking step.

20. The method according to claim 18, wherein the media comprises a digital watermark embedded on a non-data side of the media, and wherein said method comprises the step of detecting the digital watermark on the non-data media side.

21. The method according to claim 20, wherein said non-data side watermark is compared to the watermark embedded in the visual design.

22. The method according to claim 18, wherein the watermark detector comprises a digital camera.

23. The method according to claim 22, wherein said watermark detector comprises electronic processing circuitry to execute watermark detection software instructions.

24. The method according to claim 23, wherein the pit placement comprises a visual design.

26. The method according to claim 25, wherein said analyzing step comprises at least one of pattern recognition, hashing and fingerprinting.

27. The method according to claim 26, wherein said analyzing step determines a value corresponding to the visual pattern and the value is used in said identifying step to identify the physical media.

28. The method according to claim 27, wherein the value is used to index a database comprising information related to the physical media.

29. The method according to claim 28, wherein the physical media comprises at least one of a SACD, CD, DVD, laser disc, and mini-disc.

30. The method according to claim 29, wherein the visual pattern comprises a pattern of pits on a data side of the physical media.

13. Media including a plurality of pits, said media comprising:

a visual design formed by the plurality of pits; and

a digital watermark embedded within the visual design.

18. A method involving media comprises a digital watermark formed by pit placement in the media, said method comprising:

presenting the media to a watermark detector; and

when a watermark is found by the watermark detector, linking to content related to the media through information carried by the watermark.

25. A method to identify physical media comprising the steps of:

analyzing a visual pattern on the physical media; and

identifying the physical media through said analyzing step.

31. Optical media comprising:

a data side comprising a plurality of pits, wherein physical locations for a set of the pits are arranged to comprise a digital watermark that is detectable from a 2-demensional image of the data side.

32. The optical media according to claim 31, wherein the digital watermark is imperceptible.

33. The optical media according to claim 31, wherein the digital watermark is a fragile watermark.

34. The optical media according to claim 33, wherein the digital watermark is a robust watermark.