Modulating one or more parameters of an audio or video perceptual coding system in response to supplemental information

• US 20040024588A1
• Filed: 02/11/2003
• Published: 02/05/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 08/16/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation (Dolby Laboratories Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation (Dolby Laboratories Incorporated)
• Inventors: Crocket, Brett Graham, Truman, Michael Mead, Vernon, Stephen Decker, Watson, Matthew Aubrey
• Granted Patent: US 7,395,211 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/200.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/0028 Adaptive watermarking, e.g. Human Visual System [HVS]-based watermarking
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2201/0064 for copy protection or copy management, e.g. CGMS, copy only once, one-time copy
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 19/002 Dynamic bit allocation for perceptual audio coders G10L19/032
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 19/018 Audio watermarking, i.e. embedding inaudible data in the audio signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/467 characterised by the embedded information being invisible, e.g. watermarking

Abstract

A method of modifying the operation of the encoder function and/or the decoder function of a perceptual coding system in accordance with supplemental information, such as a watermark, so that the supplemental information may be detectable in the output of the decoder function. One or more parameters are modulated in the encoder function and/or the decoder function in response to the supplemental in formation.

Claims

1. A method of modifying the operation of the encoder function and/or the decoder function of a perceptual coding system in accordance with supplemental information so that the supplemental information may be detectable in the output of the decoder function, comprising

modulating one or more parameters in said encoder function and/or said decoder function in response to the information content of said supplemental information.

2. A method according to claim 1 wherein said perceptual coder is an audio coder of the type that employs a hybrid forward/backward bit allocation.

3. A method according to claim 2 wherein said one or more parameters include one or more parameters that fall within one or more of the following categories:

masking model and bit allocation,

coupling between or among channels,

frequency bandwidth,

dither control,

phase relationship, and

time/frequency transform window.

4. A method according to claim 1 wherein said perceptual coder is an audio coder of the type that employs a forward bit allocation.

5. A method according to claim 4 wherein said one or more parameters include one or more parameters that fall within one or more of the following categories:

masking model and bit allocation,

coupling between or among channels,

temporal noise shaping filter coefficients, and

time/frequency transform window.

6. A method according to claim 1 wherein said perceptual coder is a video coder and wherein said one or more parameters include one or more parameters that fall within one or more of the following categories:

frame type, and

motion control.

7. A method according to claim 1 wherein said one or more parameters are selected from the parameters that affect in the decoded output signal one or more of:

signal-to-noise ratio,

quantizer noise,

time relationship between or among channels,

frequency bandwidth,

shaped noise,

phase relationship between or among channels, and

wide spectrum, time-aliasing noise.

8. A method according to claim 1 wherein said one or more parameters are modulated by performing one of the following acts:

varying a two valued parameter between its two values,

varying the parameter between or among its default value and one or more other values, and

varying the parameter between or among values other than its default value.

9. A method according to claim 1 wherein the degree of modulation of said one or more parameters is controlled.

10. A method according to claim 9 wherein the degree of modulation of said one or more parameters is controlled to limit the perceptibility of artifacts in the decoded output signal resulting from the modulation of said one or more parameters.

11. A method according to claim 1 wherein the modulation of a parameter is indirectly controlled in accordance with supplemental information such that one or more of the following modulation characteristics:

the selection of one or more parameters for modulation,

the rate of parameter selection, and

the rate of parameter state transitions

is determined in response to supplemental information and as a function of one or more other signals or sequences.

12. A method according to claim 11 wherein said one or more other signals or sequences includes either or both of the following:

a set of instructions, and

characteristics of the input signal to the encoder of the coding system.

13. A method according to claim 12 wherein said set of instructions include a deterministic sequence.

14. A method according to claim 13 wherein said deterministic sequence is a pseudo-random-number sequence.

15. A method according to claim 1 wherein said one or more parameters are modulated in said encoder function.

16. A method according to claim 1 wherein said one or more parameters are modulated in said decoder function.

17. A method according to claim 1 wherein said one or more parameters are modulated in said encoder function and in said decoder function.

18. A method for modifying the operation of the encoder and/or the decoder of a perceptual coding system in, accordance with supplemental information and for detecting the supplemental information in the output of the decoder according to claim 1, further comprising

detecting the supplemental information in the output of the decoder function.

19. A method according to claim 18 wherein the act of detecting the supplemental information in the output of the decoder function is accomplished by one of the following acts:

observing the decoded signal,

comparing the decoded signal to the signal applied to the encoder function, and

comparing the decoded signal to the decoded signal from a substantially identical perceptual coding system in which no parameters in the encoder function or decoder function are modulated in response to supplemental information.

20. A method according to claim 19 wherein the act of observing the decoded signal comprises comparing the decoded signal to a time delayed version of itself.

21. A method according to claim 1 wherein one or more perceptual coding parameters are modulated in response to said supplemental information.