Digitally watermarked maps and signs and related navigational tools

• US 7,249,257 B2
• Filed: 04/10/2001
• Issued: 07/24/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/05/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Digimarc Corporation
• Original Assignee: Digimarc Corporation
• Inventors: Brundage, Trent J., Lofgren, Neil
• Primary Examiner(s): Moazzami; Nasser
• Assistant Examiner(s): Parthasarathy; Pramila
• Application Number:
  US09/833,013
• Publication Number:
  US 20020147910A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,296 Days
• Field of Search: 713/176, 283/35, 382/278
• US Class Current: 713/176
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/16 Program or content traceability, e.g. by watermarking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6209 to a single file or object, e.g. in a secure envelope, encrypted and accessed using a key, or with access control rules appended to the object itself
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2113 Multi-level security, e.g. mandatory access control
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/0042 Fragile watermarking, e.g. so as to detect tampering
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/0071 using multiple or alternating watermarks
• 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: G06T 2201/0061 Embedding of the watermark in each block of the image, e.g. segmented watermarking
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 29/106 using electronic means
• 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 2201/3233 of authentication information, e.g. digital signature, watermark
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99948 Application of database or data structure, e.g. distributed, multimedia, or image

Abstract

Maps and signs are embedded with plural-bit data in the form of digital watermarks. In one embodiment, the plural-bit data includes location information with respect to a map. A handheld reading device extracts the location information from the map. The reading device then compares the location information with a physical location of the device. Feedback is provided to help a device user to correlate the map location with the physical location. In another embodiment, signs are watermarked to provide navigational and informational aids. The watermarks may include unique identifiers, which allow database lookup of related information.

Claims

1. An apparatus to read digital watermarks embedded within a map, the map being divided into a plurality of areas, with each area comprising at least one embedded digital watermark including location information for the respective map area, said apparatus comprising:

a global positioning system receiver to determine a location of said apparatus;

an input device to capture an image of at least a portion of the respective map area;

memory including executable software instructions stored therein, the instructions to extract the location information from the at least one embedded digital watermark from the captured image of at least a portion of the respective map area, and to correlate the location of the apparatus with the extracted location information;

electronic processing circuitry to execute the software instructions; and

an output device to indicate the correlation of the apparatus location and the captured watermark location information.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said apparatus is a handheld apparatus.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the output device provides at least one of an LED indication, arrow indication, audio indication, grid indication,or visual display.

4. A method of providing a representation of a geographical area comprising:

dividing a representation of a geographical area into a plurality of areas; and

steganographically encoding plural-bit location data within each of the plurality of areas, the location data is unique per each of the plurality of areas, the steganographic encoding varying values representing at least some data associated with a first area of the plurality of areas and at least some data associated with a second area of the plurality of areas.

5. A method of navigating with a map embedded with digital watermarks comprising:

machine-reading steganographic indicia from optical scan data representing the map, the steganographic indicia including location information which uniquely identifies the map in which the steganographic indicia is embedded in;

comparing the location information to a physical location; and

providing feedback to correlate the location information and the physical location.

6. A method of correlating a physical location to a map location, the map being divided into a plurality of areas, with each area comprising at least one embedded digital watermark including location information for the respective area, the method comprising:

extracting the location information from the watermark at the map location;

comparing the extracted location information to global positioning system (GPS) received coordinates of the physical location; and

providing feedback based on the comparison of the physical location and the map location.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein the location information comprises an index, and said method further comprises indexing a database with the index to identify location information.

8. An apparatus to read digital watermarks embedded within a map, the map being divided into a plurality of areas, with each area comprising at least one embedded digital watermark including location information for the respective map area, said apparatus comprising:

a global positioning system that determines a location of said apparatus;

an input to receive optical scan data corresponding to at least a portion of the respective map area;

memory including executable software instructions stored therein, the instructions to extract location information from the optical scan data of at least a portion of the respective map area, and to correlate the location of the apparatus with the extracted location information;

electronic processing circuitry to process the software instructions; and

an output to indicate a correlation of the apparatus location and the watermark location information.

9. A method comprising:

inputting a map location to a computing device, wherein the map includes a plurality of digital watermarks embedded therein, and wherein said inputting a map location to a computer device comprises reading at least one of the plurality of digital watermarks, the watermark comprising the map location;

determining a current location;

in the computing device, determining a relationship between the input map location and the current location; and

providing directions from the current location to the map location.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein said determining a current location comprises receiving GPS signals to determine the current location.