Establishing and interacting with on-line media collections using identifiers in media signals

• US 6,829,368 B2
• Filed: 01/24/2001
• Issued: 12/07/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 01/26/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Digimarc Corporation
• Original Assignee: Digimarc Corporation
• Inventors: Meyer, Joel R., Rhoads, Geoffrey B.
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel, Jayanti K.
• Application Number:
  US09/769,017
• Publication Number:
  US 20010031066A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,413 Days
• Field of Search: 382/100, 382/232, 382/305, 382/112, 382/115, 345/744, 345/765, 380/54, 380/201, 380/210, 380/240, 386/46, 386/52, 386/69, 704/23, 704/270, 704/273, 707/104.1, 707/200, 713/153, 713/176, 713/168, 725/37
• US Class Current: 382/100
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/0021 Image watermarking
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2201/0051 Embedding of the watermark in the spatial domain
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2201/0052 Embedding of the watermark in the frequency domain
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/235 Processing of additional data, e.g. scrambling of additional data or processing content descriptors
• 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 21/25816 involving client authentication restricting access to computer systems by authenticating users using a predetermined code G06F21/33; cryptographic authentication protocols H04L9/32; networks authentication protocols H04L63/08; authentication in wireless network security H04W12/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26258 for generating a list of items to be played back in a given order, e.g. playlist, or scheduling item distribution according to such list retrieval of multimedia data based on playlists G06F16/40
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/41407 embedded in a portable device, e.g. video client on a mobile phone, PDA, laptop constructional details of equipment or arrangements specially adapted for portable computer application G06F1/1626; arrangements specially adapted for mobile receivers in broadcast systems H04H20/57
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42684 Client identification by a unique number or address, e.g. serial number, MAC address, socket ID network arrangements, protocols or services for addressing or naming H04L61/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/435 Processing of additional data, e.g. decrypting of additional data, reconstructing software from modules extracted from the transport stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4622 Retrieving content or additional data from different sources, e.g. from a broadcast channel and the Internet web site content organization and management for information retrieval from the Internet G06F16/958; transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82; stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services including data channel over packet-switching network H04L12/1859
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4722 for requesting additional data associated with the content
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4825 using a list of items to be played back in a given order, e.g. playlists
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6581 Reference data, e.g. a movie identifier for ordering a movie or a product identifier in a home shopping application
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8133 specifically related to the content, e.g. biography of the actors in a movie, detailed information about an article seen in a video program
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8352 involving content or source identification data, e.g. Unique Material Identifier [UMID]
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/84 Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8586 by using a URL processing chained hypermedia data for information retrieval G06F16/94; information retrieval from the Internet by using URLs G06F16/955; URL in broadcast information H04H20/93; Web-based protocols H04L67/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

Media objects are transformed into active, connected objects via identifiers embedded into them or their containers. In the context of a user'"'"'s playback experience, a decoding process extracts the identifier from a media object and possibly additional context information and forwards it to a server. The server, in turn, maps the identifier to an action, such as returning metadata, re-directing the request to one or more other servers, requesting information from another server to identify the media object, etc. The linking process applies to broadcast objects as well as objects transmitted over networks in streaming and compressed file formats.

Claims

1. A method of establishing an on-line collection of media titles, comprising the steps of:

extracting an identifier steganographically encoded in a media signal;

sending the identifier to a database; and

requesting the database to add a title associated with the media signal to an on-line collection.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of:

requesting playback of a title from the on-line collection.

3. A system to interact with an on-line collection of media titles stored in a database, said system comprising:

a detector to extract an embedded watermark from a media signal, the watermark including identifying information for the media signal;

a module to send the identifying information to the database; and

a module to receive data from the database in response to the identifying information.

4. The system according to claim 3, wherein the identifying information includes a title of the media signal to be added to the on-line collection.

5. The system according to claim 3, wherein the identifying information includes usage rights.

6. The system according to claim 3, wherein the media signal is stored in a content package.

7. An apparatus to interact with a media signal, said apparatus comprising:

a storage device;

a processing unit; and

a local application stored in said storage device and processed by said processing unit, said local application operating to;

i) extract an identifier from the media signal, the identifier being steganographically encoded into the media signal, and to ii) send the identifier to a database to associate the media signal with an on-line collection maintained by the database.

8. The apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the identifier comprises a watermark.

9. The apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the identifier comprises a reference number.

10. The apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the identifier comprises data embedded within a watermark.

11. The apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the data comprises a title name.

12. The apparatus according to claim 7, wherein said local application provides a user identifier to the database.

13. The apparatus according to claim 12, wherein said user identifier comprises a device identifier.

14. The apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the media signal is stored in a content package.

15. A method of operating a system to create and manage a library of on-line media titles, said method comprising the steps of:

receiving a media identifier from a user that has been extracted from steganographically encoded information in a media signal;

determining a title that corresponds to the media identifier;

identifying the user; and

adding the media title to an on-line library of media titles associated with the user.

16. The method according to claim 15, further comprising the step of:

in response to a user'"'"'s request for a media title, verifying that the media title is in the user'"'"'s on-line library.

17. The method according to claim 16, further comprising the steps of:

authenticating the user in response to the user'"'"'s request for a media title; and

allowing the user to access the on-line library when the user is authenticated.

18. The method according to claim 17, further comprising the steps of:

determining usage rights associated with a requested media title, and controlling access to the media title based on the usage rights.

19. The method according to claim 15, wherein said adding step comprises the step of transferring a copy of the media title to the on-line library.

20. The method according to claim 15, wherein said adding step comprises the step of adding a pointer to the on-line library to point to a copy of the media title.

21. The method according to claim 15, wherein the user is identified by identifying a user device in communication with the system.

22. An apparatus to interact with a streaming media signal, said apparatus comprising:

a storage device;

a processing unit; and

a local application stored in said storage device and processed by said processing unit, said local application operating to;

i) extract an identifier from the streaming media signal, and to ii) send the identifier to a database to associate the streaming media signal with an on-line library collection maintained by the database.

23. The apparatus according to claim 22, wherein the identifier is embedded in a watermark in the streaming media signal.

24. The apparatus according to claim 23, wherein the watermark is replicated throughout the streaming media signal.

25. The apparatus according to claim 23, wherein the local application extracts the identifier upon a request by a user.

26. The apparatus according to claim 25, wherein the request comprises a voice command.

27. The apparatus according to claim 23, wherein the identifier comprises usage rights which dictate how the user may retrieve a copy of the streaming media signal from the library for playback.

28. The apparatus according to claim 23, wherein the on-line library is a personal library associated with a predetermined user.

29. The apparatus according to claim 23, wherein the on-line library is associated with a predetermined group of users.