Methods for opening file on computer via optical sensing

• US 6,917,724 B2
• Filed: 04/08/2002
• Issued: 07/12/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Digimarc Corporation
• Original Assignee: Digimarc Corporation
• Inventors: Rhoads, Geoffrey B., Perry, Burt W., Carr, J. Scott, Seder, Phillip Andrew
• Primary Examiner(s): COUSO, YON JUNG
• Application Number:
  US10/118,653
• Publication Number:
  US 20020164053A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,191 Days
• Field of Search: 382/100, 382/115, 382137-140, 382232-236, 382/321, 358/1.15, 358/403, 380/54, 380/59, 380/234, 380/252, 709/203, 709/217, 709/310, 713/156, 713/175, 713/154
• US Class Current: 382/321
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/26 for printing, stamping, franking, typing or teleprinting apparatus ticket printing or the like apparatus G07F17/42

Abstract

By printing documents and other objects with machine readable indicia, such as steganographic digital watermarks or barcodes, a great variety of document management functions can be enabled. The indicia can be added as part of the printing process (after document data has been output by an originating application program), such as by printer driver software, by a Postscript engine in a printer, etc. The indicia can encode data about the document, or can encode an identifier that references a database record containing such data. By showing the printed document to a computer device with a suitable optical input device (e.g., a webcam), an electronic version of the document can be recalled for editing, or other responsive action can be taken.

Claims

1. A method for opening a file on a computer system comprising:

presenting a printed version of said file to an optical sensor; and

opening the file on the computer system, wherein the printed version includes identifying information steganographically hidden therein, and wherein the optical sensor provides scan data which is analyzed to obtain the identifying information, said identifying information being used to identify a file address associated with the file so that once the address is identified the file can be opened on the computer system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the file address is identified by interrogating a data record with the identifying information, and wherein said method further comprises monitoring the file address to determine an address change, and updating the data record to reflect the change.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifying information steganographically hidden in the printed version comprises a digital watermark.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising a step of verifying authority to access the file prior to opening the file on the computer system.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein authority is verified via a password.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein authority is verified via a security token.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the security token comprises at least one of a voice-print, fingerprint and retinal scan.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifying information steganographically hidden in the printed version comprises a fragile digital watermark.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the printed version further comprises a robust digital watermark.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein said opening step proceeds only when both the fragile digital watermark and the robust digital watermark are detected.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifying information is steganographically hidden in a visible tint.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising a step of determining whether the file is authentic by comparing a representation of the electronic image and at least a portion of the identifying information.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the representation comprises at least one of a hash and digital signature.

14. A method comprising:

presenting a printed document to an optical sensor, wherein said printed document comprises optically-detectable indicia thereon, said indicia being machine-readable, but not generally intelligible to a human viewer thereof, and wherein the optical sensor produces scan data;

decoding the scan data to produce binary data corresponding to said indicia;

accessing a data store using at least a portion of said binary data;

obtaining from said data store an electronic address at which an electronic version of said printed document is stored;

determining an application program with which the document was originally generated; and

loading an electronic version of said document using the application program.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the indicia comprises a steganographic watermark.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the indicia comprises a fragile digital watermark.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the indicia further comprises a robust digital watermark.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the step of loading an electronic version of said document using the application program proceeds only when both the fragile digital watermark and the robust digital watermark have been detected.

19. The method of claim 14, wherein the indicia comprises a visible tint.

20. The method of claim 14, further comprising a step of determining whether the electronic version is authentic by comparing a representation of the electronic version and at least a portion of said binary data.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the representation comprises at least one of a hash and digital signature.

22. A method for opening a file on a computer system comprising:

presenting a printed object that corresponds to the file to an optical sensor, wherein the printed object comprises machine-readable steganographic indicia, the indicia comprising at least a payload, and wherein at least a portion of the payload is to be used to interrogate a data repository to locate a storage address for the file;

optically capturing data corresponding to the indicia;

machine-reading the captured data to obtain the payload;

verifying authority to access the file prior to allowing access to the file; and

allowing access to the file only after authority has been verified.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein authority is verified via a password.

24. The method of claim 22, wherein authority is verified via a security token.

25. The method of claim 24 wherein the security token comprises at least one of a voice-print, fingerprint and retinal scan.

26. The method of claim 22, wherein the indicia comprises a fragile digital watermark.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the indicia further comprises a robust digital watermark.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein authority is verified only when both the fragile digital watermark and the robust digital watermark are detected.