Watermark encoding and decoding

• US 20060072785A1
• Filed: 10/04/2005
• Published: 04/06/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 09/11/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Digimarc Corporation
• Original Assignee: Digimarc Corporation
• Inventors: Davidson, Clayton L., Kumar, Aruna B.
• Granted Patent: US 7,657,057 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/100
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/0071 using multiple or alternating watermarks
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2201/0051 Embedding of the watermark in the spatial 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 2201/0065 Extraction of an embedded watermark; Reliable detection
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32149 Methods relating to embedding, encoding, decoding, detection or retrieval operations
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32192 according to calculated or estimated visibility of the additional information in the image
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32229 with selective or adaptive application of the additional information, e.g. in selected regions of the image H04N1/32213 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32309 in colour image data
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32352 Controlling detectability or arrangements to facilitate detection or retrieval of the embedded information, e.g. using markers for decoding, detection or retrieval operations H04N1/32149 and subgroups take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3284 for error correction

Abstract

The disclosure details methods and systems for watermark encoding and decoding. In one implementation a method is provided to detect steganographic indicia embedded in a streaming media signal. The method includes receiving a streaming media signal; caching selected portions of the streaming media signal; detecting steganographic indicia from cached portions of streaming content; and carrying out an action based at least in part on detection of the steganographic indicia. Additional solutions, methods and implementations are detailed in the disclosure.

Claims

1. A method comprising acts of:

receiving streaming content representing a media signal;

selecting certain portions of the streaming content;

caching selected portions of the streaming content;

detecting steganographic indicia from cached portions of streaming content; and

carrying out an action based at least in part on detection of the steganographic indicia.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said selecting selects based on predetermined criteria.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the criteria comprises a statistical feature of a portion.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein the media signal comprises an image or video and the criteria comprises a noisy signal.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the steganographic indicia comprises digital watermarking.

6. The method of claim 2 wherein the criteria comprises signal energy.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising ranking cached portions in terms of their steganographic indicia detectability.

8. The method of claim 2 wherein the criteria comprises color information.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the action comprises accessing metadata associated with the media signal or steganographic indicia.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein steganographic indicia detection is performed in a device driver executing in a computer as the media signal is passed from an application program to a device and wherein the device driver includes 16 bit code, the steganographic indicia detection operation is implemented in 32 bit code, and the steganographic indicia detection operation is invoked from the 16 bit code through an application programming interface of the 32 bit code.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the 16 bit code passes data to the 32 bit code over a 16 to 32 bit bridge, and the bridge includes code enabling the 32 bit code to access data structures in the 16 bit code.

12. A method to detect steganographic indicia embedded in a streaming media signal, said method comprising acts of:

receiving a streaming media signal;

caching selected portions of the streaming media signal;

detecting steganographic indicia from cached selected portions of the streaming media signal; and

carrying out an action based at least in part on detection of the steganographic indicia.

13. The method of claim 12 further comprising:

ranking cached portions in terms of their ability to hide steganographic indicia.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein said detecting detects from relatively higher ranked portions before detecting from relatively lower ranked portions.

15. The method of claim 12 wherein portions are selected based at least on one of:

i) a relation to characteristics associated with steganographic indicia; and

ii) predetermined signal criteria.

16. The method of claim 12 wherein steganographic indicia detection is performed in a device driver executing in a computer as the media signal is passed from an application program to a device and wherein the device driver includes 16 bit code, the steganographic indicia detection operation is implemented in 32 bit code, and the steganographic indicia detection operation is invoked from the 16 bit code through an application programming interface of the 32 bit code.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the 16 bit code passes data to the 32 bit code over a 16 to 32 bit bridge, and the bridge includes code enabling the 32 bit code to access data structures in the 16 bit code.

18. The method of claim 12 wherein the action comprises accessing metadata associated with the media signal or the steganographic indicia.

19. The method of claim 12 wherein the action comprises communicating at least a portion of the steganographic indicia to a network resource.

20. The method of claim 12 wherein the steganographic indicia comprises digital watermarking.