Video steganography methods avoiding introduction of fixed pattern noise

• US 6,449,379 B1
• Filed: 02/29/2000
• Issued: 09/10/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 11/18/1993
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Digimarc Corporation
• Original Assignee: Digimarc Corporation
• Inventors: Rhoads, Geoffrey B.
• Primary Examiner(s): Johns, Andrew W.
• Application Number:
  US09/516,302
• Time in Patent Office: 924 Days
• Field of Search: 382/100, 382/232, 380/210, 380/252, 380/287, 380/54, 713/176, 348/461, 348/463, 348/466, 348/467, 348/473
• US Class Current: 382/100
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/1235 with control of digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/306 using TV related infrastructures external card used for payment with client device H04N21/4185
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/341 Active cards, i.e. cards including their own processing means, e.g. including an IC or chip
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/40145 Biometric identity checks
• 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 1/0057 Compression invariant watermarking
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2201/0052 Embedding of the watermark in the frequency domain
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/253 visually
• CPC Class Codes: G07D 7/0032 using holograms
• CPC Class Codes: G07D 7/004 using digital security elements, e.g. information coded on a magnetic thread or strip
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/26 for printing, stamping, franking, typing or teleprinting apparatus ticket printing or the like apparatus G07F17/42
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/08 by coded identity card or credit card or other personal identification means without personal verification means G07F7/02
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/086 by passive credit-cards adapted therefor, e.g. constructive particularities to avoid counterfeiting, e.g. by inclusion of a physical or chemical security-layer for security documents G07D7/00; for the reading of record-carriers in general G06K7/00; for the design of coded credit-cards G06K19/10
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/1008 Active credit-cards provided with means to personalise their use, e.g. with PIN-introduction/comparison system
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/1016 Devices or methods for securing the PIN and other transaction-data, e.g. by encryption arrangements for secret communication, see H04L9/00
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/12 Card verification
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 19/018 Audio watermarking, i.e. embedding inaudible data in the audio signal
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 19/022 Blocking, i.e. grouping of samples in time; Choice of analysis windows; Overlap factoring
• 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 20/00094 : involving measures which result in a restriction to authorised record carriers
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00115 : wherein the record carrier stores a unique medium identifier
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00166 : involving measures which result in a restriction to authorised contents recorded on or reproduced from a record carrier, e.g. music or software
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00181 : using a content identifier, e.g. an international standard recording code [ISRC] or a digital object identifier [DOI]
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/0021 : involving encryption or decryption of contents recorded on or reproduced from a record carrier
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00231 : wherein the key is obtained from a local external medium, e.g. a card
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00492 : wherein content or user data is encrypted
• 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: G11B 20/00891 : embedded in audio data
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/665 : using psychoacoustic properties of the ear, e.g. masking effect
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00005 : relating to image data
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00037 : Detecting, i.e. determining the occurrence of a predetermined state H04N1/00031 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00079 : remotely
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32128 : attached to the image data, e.g. file header, transmitted message header, information on the same page or in the same computer file as the image for information embedded in the image H04N1/32144
• 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 1/32203 : Spatial or amplitude domain methods H04N1/32309 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32208 : involving changing the magnitude of selected pixels, e.g. overlay of information or super-imposition H04N1/32219, H04N1/32224 take precedence
• 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 1/32251 : in multilevel data, e.g. greyscale or continuous tone data
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32288 : Multiple embedding, e.g. cocktail embedding, or redundant embedding, e.g. repeating the additional information at a plurality of locations in the image
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2005/91321 : the copy protection signal being a copy protection control signal, e.g. a record inhibit signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2005/91335 : the copy protection signal being a watermark
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3205 : of identification information, e.g. name or ID code H04N2201/3209 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3207 : of an address
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3225 : of data relating to an image, a page or a document
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3226 : of identification information or the like, e.g. ID code, index, title, part of an image, reduced-size image
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3233 : of authentication information, e.g. digital signature, watermark
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3246 : of data relating to permitted access or usage, e.g. level of access or usage parameters for digital rights management [DRM] related to still images
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3249 : data relating to a linked page or object, e.g. hyperlink
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/327 : which are undetectable to the naked eye, e.g. embedded codes
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3271 : Printing or stamping
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3278 : Transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/328 : Processing of the additional information
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/913 : for scrambling ; for copy protection
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/08 : Systems for the simultaneous or sequential transmission of more than one television signal, e.g. additional information signals, the signals occupying wholly or partially the same frequency band , e.g. by time division H04N7/007 takes precedence

Abstract

Video is steganographically encoded to convey a plural bit message without introducing apparent fixed pattern noise. The video comprises plural frames, each of which includes plural rows of video data. The encoding effects a pattern of changes to a row of original video to yield a row of encoded video. But that row—in a subsequent frame (e.g., the next frame)—is changed by a different pattern. Fixed pattern artifacts are thus avoided. In some arrangements, the frames convey different messages. In others, the frames convey the same message, but the apparent effect is changed by different noise data used in the encoding.

Claims

1. A method of steganographically encoding an original video with plural-bit message data to yield an encoded video, the original video comprising plural frames, each frame including plural rows of original video data, the method characterized by encoding plural-bit message data in each of first and second frames, but manifesting said encoding differently in said first and second frames by changing the representation of the message data being encoded.

2. The method of claim 1 in which the first and second frames are sequential frames.

3. The method of claim 1 in which said representation is changed by reason of different noise data used in encoding said first and second frames.

4. The method of claim 1 in which the first frame is encoded with a first plural-bit message, and the second frame is encoded with the same plural-bit message.

5. The method of claim 1 in which the encoding alters video data in substantially each row of video data in the first frame, and alters video data in substantially each row of video data in the second frame.

6. The method of claim 5 in which substantially each encoded row of video in the first frame has a non-identical counterpart encoded row of video in the second frame, even if the corresponding rows of original video data in the first and second frames are identical.

7. The method of claim 1 that further includes disabling a recording capability of an associated video apparatus in response to detection of at least a part of said plural-bit message data.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the video is processed to redundantly encode the plural-bit message data throughout substantially all of a video frame.

9. The method of claim 1 that includes changing the strength of encoding in accordance with a local attribute of the video, rather than encoding at a constant strength across each video frame.

10. The method of claim 1 in which the video comprises pixels, each with a luminance value, and in which certain of the pixels are increased in luminance as a consequence of said encoding, and others of said pixels are decreased in luminance as a consequence of said encoding.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein part of said plural-bit message data is used to disable the recording capability of an associated apparatus, and another part of said plural-bit message data is used for a purpose unrelated to disabling such a recording capability.

12. The method of claim 1, further characterized by examining the character of different portions of said video, a n d not encoding any information in certain portions thereof.

13. The method of claim 1, further characterized by MPEG-compressing the encoded video, and thereafter MPEG-decompressing the compressed video, wherein said plural-bit message data can be recovered from the video notwithstanding losses due to said MPEG compressing and decompressing.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein said encoding changes the same row in both the first and second frames, so that said row of video data in the first frame undergoes a first change, and said row of video data in the second frame undergoes a second, different, change, even if said row of original video data does not change between the first and second frames.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein said encoding is adapted to local attributes of the video, so that the energy of the encoded plural-bit message data varies in accordance with said attributes.

16. A method of steganographically encoding an original video with plural-bit message data to yield an encoded video, the original video comprising plural frames, each frame including plural rows of original video data, the method characterized in that the encoding effects a pattern of changes to a row of original video to yield a row of encoded video, wherein different non-zero patterns of changes are effected to the same video rows in first and second frames so as to prevent the appearance of fixed pattern noise in the encoded video, said different patterns of changes being caused by changing the representation of said plural-bit message data.

17. The method of claim 16 in which the first and second frames are sequential frames.

18. The method of claim 16 in which said representation is changed by reason of different noise data used in encoding said first and second frames.

19. The method of claim 16 in which the first frame is encoded with a first plural-bit message, and the second frame is encoded with the same plural-bit message.

20. The method of claim 16 in which the encoding alters video data in substantially each row of video data in the first frame, and alters video data in substantially each row of video data in the second frame.

21. The method of claim 20 in which substantially each encoded row of video in the first frame has a non-identical counterpart encoded row of video in the second frame, even if the corresponding rows of original video data in the first and second frames are identical.

22. The method of claim 16 wherein said encoding is adapted to local attributes of the video, so that the energy of the encoded plural-bit message data varies in accordance with said attributes.

23. A method for steganographically encoding a message into video frames comprised of plural rows, the method comprising:

embedding a first message into a first two-dimensional noise signal and inserting the first noise signal in a first frame; and

encoding a second message into a second, different two-dimensional noise signal and inserting the second noise signal into a second frame, wherein at least some rows are changed by both the first and second noise signals, but are changed differently due to changed message representations, such that differences in the noise signals mitigate visual artifacts attributable to common noise due to the messages embedded in the first and second frames.

24. The method of claim 23 wherein the first and second messages are the same.

25. The method of claim 23 wherein spatial positions of the noise signals at least partially overlap.

26. The method claim 23 wherein differences between the noise signals are generated by using different keys to generate the different noise signals.

27. The method of claim 23 wherein the first and second messages include a common message component.

28. The method of claim 23 wherein difference between the noise signals are generated by adapting the noise signal to an attribute or attributes of the video frames in which the noise signals are inserted.

29. The method of claim 23 wherein said encoding is adapted to local attributes of the video, so that the energy of the encoded plural-bit message data varies in accordance with said attributes.