COVERT AND ROBUST MARK FOR MEDIA IDENTIFICATION

• US 20090087021A1
• Filed: 09/29/2008
• Published: 04/02/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 07/19/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Niels J. Thorwirth
• Original Assignee: Verimatrix Incorporated (Verimatrix SA)
• Inventors: Thorwirth, Niels
• Granted Patent: US 7,853,040 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/100
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/0028 Adaptive watermarking, e.g. Human Visual System [HVS]-based watermarking
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/005 Robust watermarking, e.g. average attack or collusion attack resistant
• 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: 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 1/32229 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 21/23892 involving embedding information at multiplex stream level, e.g. embedding a watermark at packet level
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44236 Monitoring of piracy processes or activities protecting computer platforms against harmful, malicious or unexpected behaviour or activities using intrusion detection and counter measures G06F21/566; computer virus detection and handling G06F21/56
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8358 involving watermark protecting executable software by watermarking G06F21/16; image watermarking in general G06T1/0021; watermarks inserted in still images for transmission purposes H04N1/32144; inserting watermarks during video coding H04N19/467

Abstract

Systems and methods are described for repeatedly embedding information in media that is recoverable by emphasizing subtle variations between the media. In many embodiments perceptual models are used to identify portions of the media in which the embedded information is unlikely to be apparent to a human observer. One embodiment of the invention includes rendering the information in the form of a media, selecting a plurality of portions of media from the carrier media, combining at least part of the rendered media with each of the selected portions of the carrier media to form modified media portions, where the modifications to the modified media portions are not apparent to a human observer and creating a modified carrier medium using the modified media portions.

Claims

1. A method of embedding information in a carrier media, comprising:

rendering the information in the form of a media;

selecting a plurality of portions of media from the carrier media;

combining at least part of the rendered media with each of the selected portions of carrier media to form modified media portions, where the modifications to the modified media portions are not apparent to a human observer; and

creating a modified carrier medium using the modified media portions.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein:

the carrier media comprises a video sequence;

each of the portions of carrier media is a single video frame, and

the rendered media is an image.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising randomly varying the geometry of the image representing the rendered media.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein combining parts of the rendered media with each of the portions of carrier media includes modifying the rendered media according to a perceptual model.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the portions of the rendered media combined with portions of carrier media are selected pseudo randomly.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein:

the carrier media comprises an audio sequence,

each of the portions of carrier media is a section of audio; and

the rendered media is an audio sequence.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein:

the carrier media comprises video, and

the rendered media comprises a lens through which video can be projected or recorded.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the information comprises metadata related to the media.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the information identifies the time and location of video playback.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the information identifies the copyright owner or recipient of the media.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the information includes a reference to a database.

12. A method of extracting embedded media from a carrier media, comprising:

selecting a plurality of portions of media from the carrier media;

selecting at least part of each of the portions of media;

emphasizing the parts from the portions of media; and

combining the parts from the portions of media.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein emphasizing parts of the portions of media comprises applying a high pass filter to each portion of media.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein emphasizing parts of the portions of media comprises subtracting the carrier media excluding the embedded media from the carrier media including the embedded media.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein:

the carrier media comprises a video sequence;

the embedded media comprises a digital image;

each portion of media is a video frame, and the part of each video frame that is emphasized includes a group of pixels.

16. The method of claim 12 wherein combining together each part of the portions of media comprises averaging together each part of the portions of media.

17. The method of claim 12 wherein the embedded media is recognized by a device after the combination of the parts of the portions of media.

18. The method of claim 12 wherein:

the carrier media comprises an audio sequence,

the embedded media comprises an audio sequence;

each of the portions of audio comprise a portion of the audio sequence; and

the part of each of the portions of the audio sequence comprises a group of audio samples.