Portable devices and methods employing digital watermaking

• US 20030012403A1
• Filed: 05/15/2002
• Published: 01/16/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 07/27/1995
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Digimarc Corporation
• Original Assignee: Digimarc Corporation
• Inventors: Rhoads, Geoffrey B., Davis, Bruce L., Evans, Douglas B.
• Granted Patent: US 7,171,018 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/100
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/433 using audio data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/434 using image data, e.g. images, photos, pictures taken by a user
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/487 using geographical or spatial information, e.g. location
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/489 using time information

Abstract

Media objects are transformed into active, connected objects via identifiers embedded into them or their containers. In the context of a user'"'"'s playback experience, a decoding process extracts the identifier from a media object and possibly additional context information and forwards it to a server. The server, in turn, maps the identifier to an action, such as returning metadata, re-directing the request to one or more other servers, requesting information from another server to identify the media object, etc. The server may return a higher fidelity version of content from which the identifier was extracted. In some applications, the higher fidelity version may be substituted for the original media object and rendered to provide higher quality output. The linking process applies to broadcast objects as well as objects transmitted over networks in streaming and compressed file formats.

Claims

1. A method of operating a portable device that includes a sensor to capture image or audio data, comprising:

transferring the captured data to a remote device;

decoding a watermark at the remote device; and

returning corresponding data to the portable device.

2. The method of claim 1 in which the corresponding data is decoded watermark data.

3. The method of claim 1 which further includes indexing a database with reference to at least a portion of the decoded watermark to obtain a computer address corresponding thereto, and returning the computer address to the portable device.

4. The method of claim 1 which further includes indexing a database with reference to at least a portion of the decoded watermark to obtain a computer address corresponding thereto, and receiving content data from said computer address at a destination device.

5. The method of claim 4 in which the destination device is co-located with the portable device.

6. The method of claim 5 in which the destination device comprises the portable device.

7. The method of claim 4 in which the destination device is remote from the portable device.

8. The method of claim 1 in which the transferring step occurs autonomously, without user intervention.

9. The method of claim 1 in which a user initiates the transferring step by performing an action.

10. The method of claim 9 in which the user initiates the transferring step by operating a button.

11. The method of claim 1 in which the corresponding data is audio or image data like that captured by the portable device sensor, but of higher fidelity.

12. The method of claim 1 in which the corresponding data is audio or image data that is not simply a higher fidelity version of the audio or image data captured by the portable device sensor.

14. A cell phone for performing the method of claim 1.

18. The method of claim 17 in which the action is transmission of the content from the repository to the portable device.

19. The method of claim 17 in which the action is transmission of the content from the repository to a destination remote from the portable device.

20. The method of claim 17 in which the instruction data depends, at least in part, on the bandwidth of a network connection available to link the portable device to another device.

21. The method of claim 17 in which said content is audio or image data like that captured by the portable device sensor, but of higher fidelity.

22. The method of claim 17 in which said content is audio or image data that is not simply a higher fidelity version of the audio or image data captured by the portable device sensor.

13. In a portable digital audio player that includes a sensor to capture image or audio data, a method comprising:

transferring the captured data to a remote device;

decoding a watermark at the remote device; and

returning corresponding data to the portable digital audio player.

15. In a cell phone equipped with an image sensor, a method comprising:

transferring the captured data to a remote device;

decoding a watermark at the remote device; and

returning corresponding data to the cell phone.

16. In a wristwatch with an audio or image sensor, a method comprising:

transferring the captured data to a remote device;

decoding a watermark at the remote device; and

returning corresponding data to the wristwatch.

17. A method of operating a portable device that includes a sensor to capture image or audio data, comprising:

decoding watermark data from the image or audio data, the watermark serving to identify corresponding content stored in a repository; and

transferring at least a portion of the watermark data to a remote device, and sending instruction data with said watermark data, said instruction data serving to specify an action to be taken with the content stored in the repository.

23. A method of operating a device that includes a sensor to capture image or audio data, comprising:

capturing image or audio data with the sensor;

decoding a digital watermark from the captured data;

using the digital watermark to fetch a pristine version of the captured data;

substituting the pristine version for at least a part of the captured data to create a new data object; and

rendering the new data object on an output device.