Data processing apparatus and method, and storage medium therefor

• US 20050185820A1
• Filed: 03/14/2005
• Published: 08/25/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 11/20/1998
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Yoshida, Jun, Iwamura, Keiichi
• Granted Patent: US 7,171,021 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/100
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/10 Protecting distributed programs or content, e.g. vending or licensing of copyrighted material protection in video systems or pay television H04N7/16 ; Digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/16 Program or content traceability, e.g. by watermarking
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/0021 Image watermarking

Abstract

The primary objective of the present invention is the prevention, or the detection, of an illegal act involving digital contents. To achieve this objective, whether an illegal procedure involving digital contents has been performed is determined based on results obtained by performing a predetermined operation for at least a part of the digital contents, and a predetermined process is performed for the digital contents in accordance with the results of determination.

Claims

1-27. -27. (canceled)

28. A data processing apparatus comprising:

a data generating unit adapted to generate output data, capable of being output by an output device, from information including digital contents, and transfer the generated output data to the output device;

an extracting unit adapted to extract embedment information embedded as a digital watermark in the digital contents; and

a deforming unit adapted to deform the digital contents and/or the generated output data based on the extracted embedment information.

29. A data processing apparatus according to claim 28, wherein said deforming unit corrects the digital contents and outputs the corrected digital contents.

30. A data processing apparatus according to claim 28, wherein the digital contents are images and said deforming unit executes a process for the images.

31. A data processing apparatus according to claim 28, further comprising a determining unit adapted to determine whether or not to input the digital contents and/or the output data to said deforming unit, according to the extracted embedment information.

32. A data processing apparatus according to claim 28, wherein said deforming unit deteriorates quality of the digital contents and/or the output data.

33. A data processing apparatus according to claim 28, wherein

the digital contents included in the information are deformed,

information for releasing the deformation is embedded as the digital watermark, and

said deforming unit releases the deformation by using the information extracted by said extracting unit.

34. A data processing apparatus comprising:

an extracting unit adapted to extract embedment information embedded as a digital watermark in digital contents; and

a deforming unit adapted to deform the digital contents based on the extracted embedment information.

35. A data processing apparatus according to claim 34, wherein said deforming unit corrects the digital contents and outputs the corrected digital contents.

36. A data processing apparatus according to claim 34, wherein

the digital contents included in information are deformed,

information for releasing the deformation is embedded as the digital watermark, and

said deforming unit releases the deformation by using the information extracted by said extracting unit.

37. A data processing apparatus comprising:

an embedding unit adapted to embed, in digital contents, a creation time of the digital contents as a digital watermark; and

a file creating unit adapted to create a file belonging to the digital contents and describe a file update time in the file.

38. A data processing apparatus comprising:

an extracting unit adapted to extract, from digital contents in which information indicating a creation time of the digital contents is embedded as a digital watermark and a file on which an update time of the digital contents is described, the creation time and the update time; and

a comparing unit adapted to compare the extracted creation time with the extracted update time.

39. A data processing method comprising:

generating output data, capable of being output by an output device, from information including digital contents, and transferring the generated output data to the output device;

extracting embedment information embedded as a digital watermark in the digital contents; and

deforming the digital contents and/or the generated output data based on the extracted embedment information.

40. A data processing method comprising:

embedding, in digital contents, a creation time of the digital contents as a digital watermark; and

creating a file belonging to the digital contents and describe a file update time in the file.

41. A data processing method comprising:

extracting, from digital contents in which information indicating a creation time of the digital contents is embedded as a digital watermark and a file on which an update time of the digital contents is described, the creation time and the update time; and

comparing the extracted creation time with the extracted update time.

42. A computer-readable storage medium storing codes for a method comprising:

generating output data, capable of being output by an output device, from information including digital contents, and transferring the generated output data to the output device;

extracting embedment information embedded as a digital watermark in the digital contents; and

deforming the digital contents and/or the generated output data based on the extracted embedment information.

43. A computer-readable storage medium storing codes for a method comprising:

embedding, in digital contents, a creation time of the digital contents as a digital watermark; and

creating a file belonging to the digital contents and describe a file update time in the file.

44. A computer-readable storage medium storing codes for a method comprising:

extracting, from digital contents in which information indicating a creation time of the digital contents is embedded as a digital watermark and a file on which an update time of the digital contents is described, the creation time and the update time; and

comparing the extracted creation time with the extracted update time.