Watermarking via quantization of rational statistics of regions

• US 20050165690A1
• Filed: 01/23/2004
• Published: 07/28/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 01/23/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Venkatesan, Ramarathnam, Liu, Tie, Mihcak, M. Kivanc
• Application Number:
  US10/764,345
• Publication Number:
  US 20050165690A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/57
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/0028 Adaptive watermarking, e.g. Human Visual System [HVS]-based watermarking
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2201/0051 Embedding of the watermark in the spatial domain
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2201/0052 Embedding of the watermark in the frequency domain
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2201/0061 Embedding of the watermark in each block of the image, e.g. segmented watermarking
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2201/0083 whereby only watermarked image required at decoder, e.g. source-based, blind, oblivious
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2201/0202 whereby the quality of watermarked images is measured; Measuring quality or performance of watermarking methods; Balancing between quality and robustness
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 19/018 Audio watermarking, i.e. embedding inaudible data in the audio signal
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00086 Circuits for prevention of unauthorised reproduction or copying, e.g. piracy indicating unauthorised use of record carriers in general G11B23/28; scrambling for television signal recording H04N5/913; network architectures or network protocols for network security H04L63/00; cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for secret or secure communication H04L9/00
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/0021 involving encryption or decryption of contents recorded on or reproduced from a record carrier
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00884 involving a watermark, i.e. a barely perceptible transformation of the original data which can nevertheless be recognised by an algorithm
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32144 embedded in the image data, i.e. enclosed or integrated in the image, e.g. watermark, super-imposed logo or stamp
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32149 Methods relating to embedding, encoding, decoding, detection or retrieval operations
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32283 Hashing
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3236 Details of authentication information generation

Abstract

Described herein is a technology for facilitating watermarking of digital goods. The technology, described herein, performs watermark embedding and the detection of embedded watermarks based upon rational statistics of multiple regions of a digital good

Claims

1. A processor-readable medium having processor-executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, performs acts comprising:

obtaining a digital good;

partitioning the digital good into a plurality of regions;

calculating rational statistics of one or more the regions of the plurality, so that the statistics of a region are representative of the region;

quantizing the statistics;

marking the digital good with the quantized statistics of the plurality of the regions.

2. A medium as recited in claim 1, wherein the calculating comprises generating the rational statistics of one or more regions of the plurality via a hashing function.

3. A medium as recited in claim 1, wherein the calculating comprises generating the rational statistics of one or more regions of the plurality via a hashing function employing a quotient of at least two weighted linear combinations of statistics of the one or more regions of the plurality.

4. A medium as recited in claim 1, wherein the calculating comprises generating the rational statistics of one or more regions of the plurality via a hashing function, h, where

$h_i=\frac{\sum _{}}{}$

j ∈

R i ⁢

α

ij ⁢

s j ∑

j ∈

R i ⁢

b ij ⁢

s j

where;

a_ij is the j^th element of a_i and a_i are a pseudo-random generated weight factors;

b_ij is the j^th element of b_i and b_i are a pseudo-random generated weight factors;

s denotes the digital good of dimension N×

1;

R_i are the plurality of regions, where R_i⊂

{1,2, . . . ,N}.

5. A medium as recited in claim 1, wherein the partitioning comprises segmenting the digital good into a plurality of overlapped regions.

6. A medium as recited in claim 1, wherein the marking comprises embedding a watermark via quantization.

7. A modulated signal generated by a medium as recited in claim 1.

8. A computer comprising one or more processor-readable media as recited in claim 1.

9. A processor-readable medium having processor-executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, performs acts comprising

obtaining a digital good;

and

using quantization, watermarking the digital good with a watermark, wherein such quantization is based upon semi-global characteristics of regions of the digital good, wherein such semi-global characteristics are generated via a hashing function employing a quotient of at least two weighted linear combinations of statistics of the regions of the digital good.

10. A modulated signal generated by a medium as recited in claim 9.

11. A modulated signal generated in accordance with the following acts:

receiving input from a client computer by way of a communications network, the input providing a parameter indicative of a request for a modulated signal generated by a medium as recited in claim 9;

generating the modulated signal by the medium as recited in claim 9;

sending the modulated signal via the communications network.

12. A computer comprising one or more processor-readable media as recited in claim 9.

13. A system for facilitating the protection of digital goods, the system comprising:

a partitioner configured to segment a digital good into a plurality of regions;

a region-statistics calculator configured to calculate statistics of one or more of the plurality of regions, wherein the statistics of a region are representative of that region;

a region quantizer configured to quantize such statistics of a region;

a digital-goods marker configured to generate a marked good using the quantized statistics.

14. A system as recited in claim 13, wherein the region-statistics calculator is further configured to generate the rational statistics of one or more regions of the plurality via a hashing function.

15. A system as recited in claim 13, wherein the region-statistics calculator is further configured to generate the rational statistics of one or more regions of the plurality via a hashing function, employing a quotient of at least two weighted linear combinations of statistics of the one or more regions of the plurality.

16. A system as recited in claim 13, wherein the partitioner is further configured to segment a digital good into a plurality of overlapping regions.

17. A system as recited in claim 13, wherein the region-statistics calculator is further configured to generate the rational statistics of one or more regions of the plurality via a hashing function, h, where

$h_i=\frac{\sum _{}}{}$

j ∈

R i ⁢

α

ij ⁢

s j ∑

j ∈

R i ⁢

b ij ⁢

s j

where;

a_ij is the j^th element of a_i and a_i are a pseudorandom generated weight factors;

b_ij is the j^th element of b_i and b_i are a pseudorandom generated weight factors;

s denotes the digital good of dimension N×

1;

R_i are the plurality of regions, where R_i⊂

{1,2, . . . ,N}.