Digital watermarks

• US 7,263,203 B2
• Filed: 03/03/2003
• Issued: 08/28/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 05/08/1995
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Digimarc Corporation
• Original Assignee: Digimarc Corporation
• Inventors: Rhoads, Geoffrey B., Carr, J. Scott
• Primary Examiner(s): Bella; Matthew C.
• Assistant Examiner(s): GORADIA, SHEFALI DINESH
• Application Number:
  US10/379,393
• Publication Number:
  US 20030219144A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,639 Days
• Field of Search: 382/100, 713/176
• US Class Current: 382/100
• CPC Class Codes: B29C 45/1418 the inserts being deformed or preformed, e.g. by the injection pressure
• CPC Class Codes: B42D 25/29 Securities; Bank notes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/10 Protecting distributed programs or content, e.g. vending or licensing of copyrighted material protection in video systems or pay television H04N7/16 ; Digital rights management [DRM]
• 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 1/0078 using multiple thresholds
• 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: G06T 2201/0202 whereby the quality of watermarked images is measured; Measuring quality or performance of watermarking methods; Balancing between quality and robustness
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/40 Document-oriented image-based pattern recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/253 visually
• CPC Class Codes: G07D 7/0034 using watermarks
• CPC Class Codes: G07D 7/004 using digital security elements, e.g. information coded on a magnetic thread or strip
• 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 7/12 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: 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 1/00838 : Preventing unauthorised reproduction
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32122 : in a separate device, e.g. in a memory or on a display separate from image data
• 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 1/32219 : involving changing the position of selected pixels, e.g. word shifting, or involving modulating the size of image components, e.g. of characters H04N1/32224 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32261 : in binary data H04N1/32256 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32304 : Embedding different sets of additional information
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32352 : Controlling detectability or arrangements to facilitate detection or retrieval of the embedded information, e.g. using markers for decoding, detection or retrieval operations H04N1/32149 and subgroups take precedence
• 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 21/8358 : 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 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 2201/3239 : using a plurality of different authentication information
• 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 2201/3274 : Storage or retrieval of prestored additional information
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/328 : Processing of the additional information

Abstract

An iterative encoding technique assesses trial watermark encoding of an object, and redresses any detected shortcomings in one or more successive re-encodings of the object. Other improvements concern web crawler-based watermark detectors, novel uses of meta-data in watermarks, applications of watermarks in merchandising, embedding of active computer code via watermarks, watermark-based asset management systems, watermark processing of computer system clock signals, and watermarks in labels and tags.

Claims

1. A method of encoding at least a first object and a second, different object from a set of similar objects in accordance with watermarking comprising:

first encoding the first object with the watermarking in accordance with initial encoding parameters;

decoding the watermarking from the encoded first object;

assessing the decoded watermarking;

adjusting at least one of said encoding parameters based at least in part on said assessing; and

second encoding the second, different object with watermarking in accordance with the adjusted encoding parameters;

wherein more reliable detection of the watermarking from the second, different object may be achieved relative to a detection of the watermarking from the second, different object absent said adjusting.

2. The method of claim 1, which further includes distributing the second, different object after encoding in accordance with the adjusted encoding parameters.

3. The method of claim 1 that includes subjecting the encoded first object to corruption prior to said decoding.

4. The method of claim 3 that includes subjecting the encoded first object to a lossy process including both compression and decompression prior to said decoding.

5. A machine-readable storage medium having stored thereon instructions causing a computer to perform the method of claim 1.

6. A method of encoding an object in accordance with a plural-bit digital watermark comprising:

first encoding the object with a plural-bit digital watermark in accordance with initial encoding parameters;

decoding the plural-bit digital watermark from the encoded object;

assessing the decoded plural-bit digital watermark, including determining a figure of merit for each decoded bit, the figure of merit comprising a signal-to-noise ratio associated with each decoded bit;

adjusting at least one of said encoding parameters based at least in part on said assessing; and

second encoding the object with said plural-bit digital watermark in accordance with the adjusted encoding parameters, wherein more reliable detection of each bit of the plural-bit digital watermark may be achieved relative to a detection of an object encoded only with said first encoding.

7. The method of claim 6 which includes iteratively changing parameters, encoding, and assessing, until all of the decoded bits meet a predetermined figure of merit.

8. A method of encoding objects from a group of objects in accordance with watermark data comprising:

encoding a first object with said watermark data in accordance with initial encoding parameters;

analyzing the encoded first object to assess the encoded watermark data;

adjusting at least one of said encoding parameters; and

encoding a second, different object with at least some of said watermark data in accordance with the adjusted encoding parameters;

wherein more reliable detection of the at least some of the watermark data from the encoded second object may be achieved relative to detection of the at least some of the watermark data from the encoded second object without said adjusting.

9. The method of claim 8 in which the encoding encodes portions of the first and second, different objects in rectangular patches of image data.

10. The method of claim 8 in which the encoding encodes portions of the first and second, different objects in temporal excerpts of video or audio data.

11. The method of claim 8 in which the encoding encodes coefficients in a transform domain.

12. The method of claim 8 which includes iteratively changing parameters, encoding, and analyzing until a predetermined figure of merit is reached.

13. The method of claim 8 that includes subjecting the encoded object to corruption prior to said decoding.

14. The method of claim 13 that includes subjecting the encoded object to a lossy process including both compression and decompression prior to said decoding.

15. A machine-readable storage medium having stored thereon instructions causing a computer to perform the method of claim 8.

16. The method of claim 8 wherein at least a portion of the watermark data varies as encoded in the first object from as encoded in the second, different object.

17. A method of encoding an object in accordance with watermark data, comprising:

(a) initially encoding the object with the watermark data in accordance with one or more initial encoding parameters;

(b) analyzing the encoded object to assess the encoded watermark data therein;

(c) if the analysis indicates that the initial encoding did not meet a performance metric, automatically adjusting at least one of said encoding parameters, re-encoding, and re-analyzing in an iterative fashion; and

subjecting the encoded object to corruption prior to said act of analyzing, wherein the corruption comprises a lossy process that includes both compression and decompression.

18. The method of claim 17 that includes alerting an operator if (c) fails to yield an encoded object that meets the performance metric.

19. The method of claim 17 in which the performance metric is strength of the watermark detected from the encoded object.

20. The method of claim 17 in which:

the watermark data comprises plural bits; and

the performance metric indicates the confidence by which each bit can be decoded from the encoded object.

21. A machine-readable storage medium having stored thereon instructions causing a computer to perform the method of claim 17.

22. The method of claim 17 wherein said method is implemented by a computer or device.

23. A method of encoding an object in accordance with watermark data, comprising:

(a) initially encoding the object with the watermark data in accordance with one or more initial encoding parameters;

(b) analyzing the encoded object to assess the encoded watermark data therein;

(c) if the analysis indicates that the initial encoding did not meet a performance metric, adjusting at least one of said encoding parameters and re-encoding, the performance metric comprising speed of watermark decoding.

24. A method of encoding an object in accordance with watermark data, comprising:

(a) initially encoding the object with the watermark data in accordance with one or more initial encoding parameters;

(b) analyzing the encoded object to assess the encoded watermark data therein;

(c) if the analysis indicates that the initial encoding did not meet a performance metric, automatically adjusting at least one of said encoding parameters and re-encoding, the performance metric comprising a bit rate associated with the encoded object.

25. A method of steganographic encoding of content data comprising:

receiving first content data that has been steganographically trial-encoded;

corrupting the trial-encoded first content data;

assessing a result of said corrupting;

providing information obtained through said assessing to inform subsequent steganographic encoding of second, distinct content data; and

performing the subsequent steganographic encoding process of the second, distinct content data.

26. The method of claim 25 that further includes publicly distributing the second, distinct content thus produced.

27. A method of steganographically encoding content with plural-bit data, said method comprising:

subjecting the content to an initial encoding process;

altering a form of initially encoded content;

determining a type of altering of the initially encoded content;

adjusting at least one parameter of a subsequent encoding process according to the determined type; and

encoding the content with the plural-bit data according to the adjusted subsequent encoding process.

28. The method of claim 27 wherein said altering comprises applying a lossy compression process to the initially encoded content.

29. The method of claim 27 wherein the content comprises a set of content objects, with a first content object being subjected to the initial encoding process and a second content object being encoded the plural-bit data according to the adjusted subsequent encoding process.