Digital watermarking systems
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A method of commerce over the internet between a user computer and a merchant computer, the user computer reading a document including an embedded watermark, said method comprising the steps of:
- at the user computer, extracting identifying data from the watermark, and passing the identifying data to a central computer;
at the central computer, identifying a financial institution identifier associated with the document and passing the identifier and a session ticket to the user computer;
contacting the financial institution via the financial institution identifier and passing to the financial institution the session ticket to obtain an authentication ticket;
passing the authentication ticket from the user to the merchant computer to facilitate a transaction; and
providing the authentication ticket from the merchant computer to the financial institution.
6 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A system (40) responsive to watermarked documents for exchanging data. The system (40) contains a user terminal (42) including a watermark reader, and a capture device to capture an image of a watermark document, and a central site (46) including a database of image hashes. The watermark reader reads a watermark and computes a hash of a captured image, and passes to hash to the central site (46) for comparison with the database of image hashes.
-
Citations
50 Claims
-
1. A method of commerce over the internet between a user computer and a merchant computer, the user computer reading a document including an embedded watermark, said method comprising the steps of:
-
at the user computer, extracting identifying data from the watermark, and passing the identifying data to a central computer;
at the central computer, identifying a financial institution identifier associated with the document and passing the identifier and a session ticket to the user computer;
contacting the financial institution via the financial institution identifier and passing to the financial institution the session ticket to obtain an authentication ticket;
passing the authentication ticket from the user to the merchant computer to facilitate a transaction; and
providing the authentication ticket from the merchant computer to the financial institution. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
-
-
12. A method of verifying data comprising the steps of:
-
digitally capturing an image;
computing a first hash of the captured image; and
comparing the first hash with a database of hashes, the database of hashes comprising hashes corresponding to previously captured images. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16)
-
-
17. A system for exchanging data comprising:
-
a user terminal comprising a watermark reader, and a capturing device to capture an image of a watermarked document; and
a central site comprising a database of image hashes, wherein said user terminal communicates with said central site, and wherein said reader reads a watermark and computes a hash of a captured image and passes the hash to said central site for comparison with said database of image hashes.
-
-
18. A method of commerce over a communications system between a user and a merchant, the system including a central computer, a user computer, a merchant computer and a financial institution computer, the user computer comprising a reader, the computers communicating via a network, said method comprising the steps of:
-
accessing the merchant computer from the user computer;
launching on the user computer the reader to read a document comprising embedded data, the reader extracting identifying data from the embedded data;
accessing the central computer from the user computer to obtain a URL for the financial institution computer and a ticket, the URL being identified from the extracted identifying data;
passing the ticket from the user computer to the financial institution computer to obtain an authorization;
after receipt of the authorization, passing the authorization from the user computer to the merchant computer; and
passing the authorization from the merchant computer to the financial institution computer.
-
-
19. A method of gaining permissions comprising the steps of:
-
launching on a first computer a reader to read a document comprising embedded data, the reader extracting identifying data from the embedded data;
accessing the central computer from the first computer to obtain a URL for a permission granting computer and a ticket, the URL identified from the extracted identifying data;
passing the ticket from the first computer to the permission granting computer to obtain a permission; and
upon receipt of the permission, passing the permission from the first computer to a computer requesting the permission.
-
-
20. A method of preventing online attacks, comprising the steps of:
-
capturing an encoded image;
extracting data from the encoded image;
computing a hash of the captured image; and
comparing the hash against previously determined hashes. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22)
-
-
23. A computer readable medium having a data structure stored thereon, said data structure comprising:
-
a document identifier;
a document type identifier; and
a hash of an image from which the document identifier and document type identifier were extracted from. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25)
-
-
26. A method of gaining permissions comprising the steps of:
-
launching on a first computer a reader to read a document comprising identifying data;
accessing a central computer to obtain a location of a permission computer and a ticket, the location identified from the identifying data;
passing the ticket to the permission computer to obtain a permission; and
upon receipt of the permission, passing the permission to a computer requesting the permission.
-
-
27. A method of verifying data comprising the steps of:
-
verifying physical possession of an identifying document; and
comparing provided verification data with predetermined verification data.
-
-
28. A method of conducting commerce over the internet between a user and a vendor, the user having a credit card with a credit card number, the method comprising:
-
providing the credit card number from the vendor to a credit card approval authority; and
authorizing a charge to said credit card number only after demonstrating to said approval authority that the user has physical custody of the credit card. - View Dependent Claims (29, 30, 31)
-
-
32. A method to facilitate voting comprising the steps of:
-
receiving an identifier, the identifier being extracted from a digitally watermarked document; and
verifying an ability to vote based at least in part on the received identifier.
-
-
33. A method of voting over the internet comprising the steps of:
-
accessing an online voting website; and
demonstrating an ability to vote via a digitally watermarked voting document. - View Dependent Claims (34)
-
-
35. A method of verifying information comprising the steps of:
-
extracting an embedded message from an identification document; and
using the message to determine information about the document holder. - View Dependent Claims (36, 37)
-
-
38. The method according to claim 35, wherein the message includes a plurality of bits conveying at least one of age information, address information, citizenship information, physical characteristics, and picture identification.
-
38-1. A method of providing trial access for an online website comprising the steps of:
-
digitally watermarking a document to include an embedded identifier;
linking the identifier to an account, the account having a limited lifespan; and
permitting access to the account based on the identifier.
-
-
39. A method to access a secure location comprising the steps of:
-
presenting a digitally watermarked document to a digital watermark reader, the digitally watermarked document including an identifier; and
positioning the digitally watermarked document in a plurality of orientations with respect to the digital watermark reader. - View Dependent Claims (40)
-
-
41. A method comprising the steps of:
-
in a database, linking an identifier and a combination;
receiving the identifier, the identifier extracted from a digitally watermarked document;
indexing the database to find the combination; and
determining whether an entered combination matches the database combination. - View Dependent Claims (42, 43)
-
-
44. A watermark-based combination lock comprising:
-
a database including at least one identifier linked to a combination;
a combination card including embedded information in the form of a digital watermark, the information comprising at least the identifier, wherein the combination comprises data corresponding to a plurality of combination card orientations.
-
-
45. A method of securely transferring data comprising the steps of:
-
in a watermark reader;
receiving image data;
determining whether the image data comprises a digital watermark, the digital watermark comprising an identifier;
encrypting the image data; and
communicating the image data to a receiving server; and
in the receiving server;
reading the image data to extract the identifier from the digital watermark; and
identifying information related to the identifier. - View Dependent Claims (46, 47, 48)
-
-
49. A method of securely transmitting image data over the internet, the image data comprising a digital watermark, the method comprising the steps of:
-
capturing a block of the image data;
determining whether the captured block comprises the digital watermark;
encrypting the block of image data; and
transmitting the encrypted block via the internet. - View Dependent Claims (50)
-
Specification