Covert and robust mark for media identification

• US 7,430,302 B2
• Filed: 07/19/2006
• Issued: 09/30/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 07/19/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Niels J. Thorwirth
• Original Assignee: Verimatrix Incorporated (Verimatrix SA)
• Inventors: Thorwirth, Niels
• Primary Examiner(s): Lu; Tom Y
• Application Number:
  US11/489,754
• Publication Number:
  US 20070019836A1
• Time in Patent Office: 804 Days
• Field of Search: 382/100
• US Class Current: 382/100
• 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 2201/0083 whereby only watermarked image required at decoder, e.g. source-based, blind, oblivious
• 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: 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 1/32229 with selective or adaptive application of the additional information, e.g. in selected regions of the image H04N1/32213 takes 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 21/44236 Monitoring of piracy processes or activities protecting computer platforms against harmful, malicious or unexpected behaviour or activities using intrusion detection and counter measures G06F21/566; computer virus detection and handling G06F21/56
• 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

Abstract

Systems and methods are described for repeatedly embedding information in media that is recoverable by emphasizing subtle variations between the media. In many embodiments perceptual models are used to identify portions of the media in which the embedded information is unlikely to be apparent to a human observer. One embodiment of the invention includes rendering the information in the form of a media, selecting a plurality of portions of media from the carrier media, combining at least part of the rendered media with each of the selected portions of the carrier media to form modified media portions, where the modifications to the modified media portions are not apparent to a human observer and creating a modified carrier medium using the modified media portions.

Claims

1. A method of imperceptibly and robustly embedding information as a human recognizable image in a video sequence, comprising:

rendering the information as a human recognizable image, where the information is visually represented within the human recognizable image;

obtaining a plurality of video frames from the video sequence;

directly combining at least part of the rendered human recognizable image with each of the plurality of video frames to form modified video frames, where the parts of the rendered human recognizable image are embedded in corresponding embedding positions across the plurality of video frames and can be used to recreate the rendered human recognizable image by combining the plurality of video frames, and the modifications to the video frames are not apparent to a human observer; and

thereby creating a modified video sequence containing the human recognizable image, using the modified video frames.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising varying the geometry of the rendered human recognizable image.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein combining parts of the rendered human recognizable image with each of the plurality of video frames includes modifying the rendered human recognizable image according to a perceptual model.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the portions of the rendered human recognizable image that are combined with video frames are selected pseudo randomly.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein a lens is used to combine at least part of the human recognizable image with each of the plurality of video frames.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the information comprises metadata related to the media.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the information identifies the time and location of video playback.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the information identifies the copyright owner or recipient of the media.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the information includes a reference to a database.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining a plurality of video frames from the video sequence comprises selecting a plurality of video frames from the video sequence.

10. A method of uncovering information represented within a human recognizable image robustly and imperceptibly embedded in a marked video sequence, where the marked video sequence is generated by combining at least part of the human recognizable image with each of a plurality of frames of a video sequence in corresponding embedding locations, comprising:

using video frames from the marked video sequence, where parts of the human recognizable image are imperceptibly present in a plurality of the video frames; and

combining the video frames in a predetermined manner that results in an accumulated image in which the parts of the human recognizable image present in the video frames are emphasized, where the combining of video frames in a predetermined manner proceeds until the human recognizable image is sufficiently emphasized in the accumulated image as to be recognizable.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein combining the video frames in a predetermined manner comprises averaging together the video frames.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the human recognizable information is recognized by a device after the combination of the video frames results in an accumulated image in which the human recognizable image is recognizable.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein combining the video frames in a predetermined manner further comprises selecting a predetermined portion of each video frame.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the video sequence is degraded.

15. The method of claim 10, further comprising selecting a plurality of video frames from the video sequence.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein combining the video frames in a predetermined manner further comprises emphasizing at least one predetermined aspect of the video frames.

17. The method of claim 10, wherein the plurality of video frames are of different images.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein emphasizing at least one predetermined aspect of the video frames comprises applying a high pass filter to the video frames.