Authenticating Metadata and Embedding Metadata in Watermarks of Media Signals

• US 20070266252A1
• Filed: 04/24/2007
• Published: 11/15/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 01/13/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Digimarc Corporation
• Original Assignee: Digimarc Corporation
• Inventors: Davis, Bruce, Rhoads, Geoffrey, Conwell, William
• Granted Patent: US 8,121,342 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/176
• 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: G06Q 30/018 Certifying business or products
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/0021 Image watermarking
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 19/018 Audio watermarking, i.e. embedding inaudible data in the audio signal

Abstract

A method of associating metadata with a media signal receives an identifier for the media signal, uses the identifier to look up metadata in a metadata database, validates the metadata by checking attributes of the media signal relative to at least a portion of the metadata to provide validated metadata; and provides the validated metadata to a requesting application. Related methods enable searching of metadata across metadata databases, routing metadata requests to the metadata databases, controlling access to and validating metadata for media content, and re-associating valid metadata with media content.

Claims

1. A method of associating metadata with a media signal, the method comprising:

receiving an identifier for the media signal;

using the identifier to look up metadata in a metadata database;

validating the metadata by checking attributes of the media signal relative to at least a portion of the metadata to provide validated metadata; and

providing the validated metadata.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the identifier comprises a digital watermark extracted from the media signal.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein validating the metadata comprises comparing a content signature derived from the media signal with a content signature obtained using the identifier.

4. The method of claim 1 including:

using the validated metadata to control processing of the media signal.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the metadata is used to refer to an alternative version of the media signal.

6. The method of claim 4 wherein the metadata is used to specify copyright conditions.

7. The method of claim 4 wherein a compliant application receiving the metadata creates a file and includes the media signal and the validated metadata in the file.

8. The method of claim 1 including:

evaluating the identifier to resolve which of a set of metadata servers to route the identifier; and

forwarding the identifier to the metadata server.

9. The method of claim 1 including:

using the validated metadata to execute a search for additional media signals with similar attributes of the media signal based on the validated metadata.

10. The method of claim 9 including:

executing the search across a plurality of metadata databases, each storing metadata for media signals.

11. A method of associating metadata with a media signal, the method comprising:

providing an identifier for the media signal to obtain metadata in a metadata database, wherein the identifier is derived from perceptual content of the media signal;

receiving the metadata from the metadata database; and

creating an association between the metadata and the media signal.

12. The method of claim 11 including validating the metadata by checking attributes of the media signal relative to at least a portion of the metadata to provide validated metadata.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein the metadata is obtained from at least one of plurality of metadata servers to which the identifier is routed.

14. The method of claim 11 including conducting a search for metadata in a plurality of metadata databases using the identifier.

15. The method of claim 11 wherein the identifier comprises a digital watermark.

16. The method of claim 11 wherein the identifier comprises a content signature that is compared against a database of content signatures to obtain the metadata for the media signal.

17. The method of claim 11 wherein the metadata is used to retrieve a substitute media signal for the media signal.

18. The method of claim 11 wherein the metadata provides copyright conditions used to control the media signal.

19. A method of searching for media signals using metadata, the method comprising:

receiving an identifier for the media signal to obtain metadata in a first database, wherein the identifier is derived from perceptual content of the media signal;

searching for related media signals by using the metadata from the first database as a search query for a plurality of additional metadata databases; and

generating search results including identifiers of the related media signals obtained from the search results from the additional metadata databases.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein a content signature of the media signal is used to validate the metadata from the first metadata database.