Digital content protection using invisible and visible watermarks

• US 7,337,321 B2
• Filed: 08/29/2002
• Issued: 02/26/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 04/05/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Fujikawa, Yoshifumi, Iwagaki, Taruhi, Terada, Koichi, Fujii, Yukio
• Primary Examiner(s): Moazzami; Nasser
• Assistant Examiner(s): Cervetti; David Garcia
• Application Number:
  US10/230,431
• Publication Number:
  US 20030191941A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,007 Days
• Field of Search: 713/193, 713/176
• US Class Current: 713/176
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/0021 Image watermarking
• 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 1/32325 the embedded data being visible
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3233 of authentication information, e.g. digital signature, watermark
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3269 of machine readable codes or marks, e.g. bar codes or glyphs
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/327 which are undetectable to the naked eye, e.g. embedded codes

Abstract

A technique for distributing digital contents capable of effectively protecting copyrights and the like on the basis of invisible electronic watermark information and electronic watermark information is to be provided. On the sending side, additional information including copyright-related information is embedded into digital contents in advance as invisible electronic watermark information, while on the receiving side, additional information as the embedded invisible electronic watermark information is decoded and extracted as visible watermark information, the extracted information is embedded again into the digital contents, and the additional information is distributed or outputted as visible information together with the digital contents.

Claims

1. A contents distributing apparatus for visibly arranging additional information on contents and distributing the contents, comprising:

an input unit which inputs contents on which invisible electronic watermark information is superimposed;

a control port which receives a read request information from outside and outputs said read request information, wherein said read request information is a control information for the control of making said additional information visible or invisible;

a memory which stores said contents on which invisible electronic watermark information input by the input unit is superimposed;

an extracting unit which extracts the additional information as invisible electronic watermark information superimposed on the contents stored in said memory;

a superimposing unit which embeds visible information into the contents stored in said memory and generates contents on which the visible information has been superimposed, wherein said visible information is visible graphics data which is related to said additional information extracted by the extracting unit;

an output unit which outputs said contents on which the visible information has been superimposed and forms a single file of said contents; and

a controller which controls said memory, said extracting unit, said superimposing unit and said output unit, and causes said extracting unit to extract the additional information from the invisible electronic watermark information which is superimposed on the contents and causes said output unit to output the contents on which the visible information has been superimposed, based on said read request information output from said control port.

2. The contents distributing apparatus, according to claim 1, wherein said additional information is either copyright owner information or information on viewing/listening restriction.

3. The contents distributing apparatus, according to claim 1, wherein said visible information is visible watermark information.

4. The contents distributing apparatus, according to claim 1, wherein said additional information is information concerning copyright owner information, and said visible information is either name of the copyright owner or the logo image based on the information concerning copyright owner information.

5. A contents distributing system for distributing contents, comprising:

means for superimposing additional information as invisible electronic watermark information to the contents;

a transmitting unit which transmits the contents on which said invisible electronic watermark information is superimposed;

a receiving unit which receives the contents on which said invisible electronic watermark information is superimposed;

a control port which receives and outputs a read request information, wherein said read request information is a control information for the control of making said additional information visible or invisible;

a memory which stores said contents on which invisible electronic watermark information is superimposed;

an extracting unit which extracts additional information as invisible electronic watermark information superimposed on the contents stored in said memory;

a superimposing unit which embeds visible information into the contents stored in said memory and generates contents on which the visible information has been superimposed, wherein said visible information is visible graphics data which is related to said additional information extracted by the extracting unit;

an output unit which outputs said contents on which the visible information has been superimposed and forms a single file of said contents; and

a controller which controls said memory, said extracting unit, said superimposing unit and said output unit, and causes said extracting unit to extract the additional information from the invisible electronic watermark information which is superimposed on the contents and causes said output unit to output the contents on which the visible information has been superimposed, based on said read request information output from said control port.

6. A data storage apparatus capable of visibly arranging additional information on digital contents and outputting the digital contents of this arrangement, comprising:

an input unit which receives a first information signal consisting of digital contents in which additional information is embedded as invisible electronic watermark information;

a control port which receives a read request information from outside and outputs said read request information, wherein said read request information is a control information for the control of making said additional information visible or invisible;

a memory which is controlled based on said read request and which stores the digital contents of said first information signal;

a decoder which is controlled based on said read request information and which decodes the additional information as invisible electronic watermark information embedded in said first information signal and extracts the additional information as visible watermark information;

a visible watermark information superimposing unit which is controlled based on said read request information and which embeds said visible watermark information into the digital contents read out of said memory to form a second information signal; and

an output unit which is controlled based on said read request information and which outputs the second information signal and forms a single file of the digital contents of said second information signal;

wherein said input unit and said output unit are configured as an interface of a file system, and are configured to output said additional information as visible information together with said digital contents, wherein said visible information is visible graphics data which is related to said additional information.

7. A contents distributing method, comprising the steps of:

superimposing additional information as invisible electronic watermark information into the contents;

transmitting the contents on which said invisible electronic watermark information is superimposed;

receiving the contents on which said invisible electronic watermark information is superimposed;

storing the contents on which said invisible electronic watermark information is superimposed, based on a read request information, wherein said read request information is a control information for the control of making said additional information visible or invisible;

extracting said additional information as invisible electronic watermark information superimposed into the stored contents, based on said read request information;

embedding visible information into the stored contents and generating contents on which the visible information has been superimposed, wherein said visible information is visible graphics data which is related to said additional information; and

outputting contents on which visible information has been superimposed and forming a single file of said contents, based on said read request information.

8. A data storage apparatus for storing contents superimposed invisible electronic watermark information, comprising:

an input unit which inputs contents on which invisible electronic watermark information is superimposed;

a control port which receives a read request information from outside and outputs said read request information, wherein said read request information is a control information for the control of making said additional information visible or invisible

a memory which stores said contents on which invisible electronic watermark information input by the input unit is superimposed;

an extracting unit which extracts additional information as invisible electronic watermark information superimposed on the contents stored in said memory;

a superimposing unit which embeds visible information into the contents stored in said memory and generates contents on which the visible information has been superimposed, wherein said visible information is visible graphics data which is related to said additional information extracted by the extracting unit;

an output unit which outputs said contents on which the visible information has been superimposed and forms a single file of said contents; and

a controller which controls said memory, said extracting unit, said superimposing unit and said output unit, and causes said extracting unit to extract the additional information from the invisible electronic watermark information which is superimposed on the contents and causes said output unit to output the contents on which the visible information has been superimposed, based on said read request information output from said control port.

9. The data storage apparatus, according to claim 8, wherein said additional information is either copyright owner information or information on viewing/listening restriction.

10. The data storage apparatus, according to claim 8, wherein said visible information is visible watermark information.

11. The data storage apparatus, according to claim 8, wherein said additional information is information concerning copyright owner information, and said visible information is either the name of the copyright owner or the logo image based on the information concerning copyright owner information.