Encoding and decoding in accordance with steganographically-conveyed data

• US 6,519,352 B2
• Filed: 01/23/2002
• Issued: 02/11/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 10/21/1994
• 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:
  US10/056,276
• Publication Number:
  US 20020114492A1
• Time in Patent Office: 384 Days
• Field of Search: 382/100, 382/232, 380/201, 380/210, 380/236, 380/252, 380/42, 380/43, 380/287, 380/54, 380/203, 381/73.1, 704/200.1
• US Class Current: 382/100
• 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: G06Q 30/0283 Price estimation or determination
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/005 Robust watermarking, e.g. average attack or collusion attack resistant
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/0064 Geometric transfor invariant watermarking, e.g. affine transform invariant
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2201/0052 Embedding of the watermark in the frequency domain
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2201/0065 Extraction of an embedded watermark; Reliable detection
• 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 17/16 for devices exhibiting advertisements, announcements, pictures or the like
• 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: 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 20/00884 : 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: G11B 2020/10537 : Audio or video recording
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/665 : using psychoacoustic properties of the ear, e.g. masking effect
• CPC Class Codes: H04K 1/02 : by adding a second signal to make the desired signal unintelligible
• 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 1/32144 : 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 1/32154 : Transform domain methods H04N1/32309 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/3216 : using Fourier transforms
• 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 1/32251 : 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 2005/91307 : by adding a copy protection signal to the video signal
• 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 2005/91342 : the copy protection signal being an authentication signal
• 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 2201/3226 : 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 2201/327 : which are undetectable to the naked eye, e.g. embedded codes
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3271 : Printing or stamping
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/328 : Processing of the additional information
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/913 : for scrambling ; for copy protection
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8205 : involving the multiplexing of an additional signal and the colour video signal

Abstract

A digital content object comprised of plural portions is steganographically encoded, with different portions of the object conveying different steganographic data. Data steganographically conveyed in a first portion can be required to access information in a second portion. Data steganographically conveyed in the second portion can be required to access information in a third portion, and so on. Such arrangements make it more difficult for hackers to gain access to electronic content.

Claims

1. A method of processing a digital content object comprised of plural portions, said portions representing audio or image information, the method comprising:

steganographically encoding first decryption instruction data in one of said portions; and

steganographically encoding second, different decryption instruction data in another of said portions;

wherein the first decryption instruction data is needed to decrypt data from a first of said portions, and the second decryption instruction data is needed to decrypt data from a second of said portions.

2. The method of claim 1 in which the digital content object represents audio information.

3. The method of claim 1 in which the digital content object represents image information.

4. A method of processing a digital content object comprised of plural portions, said portions representing audio or image information, comprising:

steganographically decoding first decryption instruction data from one of said portions;

steganographically decoding second, different decryption instruction data from another of said portions; and

using said first and second decryption instruction data to decrypt data from first and second portions of said digital content, respectively.

5. The method of claim 4 in which the digital content object represents audio information.

6. The method of claim 4 in which the digital content object represents image information.

7. A method for use with a digital content object comprised of plural portions, said portions representing audio or image information, the procedure comprising:

steganographically decoding first data from a first of said portions; and

using at least part of said first data in processing information from a second of said portions, said processing being necessary in order to render the audio or image information to a user.

8. The method of claim 7 in which the digital content object represents audio information.

9. The method of claim 7 in which the digital content object represents image information.

10. The method of claim 7 in which said processing comprises decrypting.

11. The method of claim 10 that further includes steganographically decoding second data from the decrypted second portion.

12. The method of claim 11 that further includes using at least part of said second data in processing information from a third of said portions, said processing being necessary in order to render the audio or image information to a user.

13. The method of claim 7 in which said processing comprises steganographic decoding second data from said second portion.

14. The method of claim 13 that further includes using at least part of said second data in processing information from a third of said portions.