Digital watermarking of tonal and non-tonal components of media signals

• US 7,454,034 B2
• Filed: 06/15/2004
• Issued: 11/18/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 01/11/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Digimarc Corporation
• Original Assignee: Digimarc Corporation
• Inventors: Zhu, Bin, Tewfik, Ahmed, Swanson, Mitchell D.
• Primary Examiner(s): BHATNAGAR, ANAND P
• Application Number:
  US10/869,178
• Publication Number:
  US 20050025334A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,617 Days
• Field of Search: 382/100, 382/232, 713/176, 380/210, 380/252, 380/287, 380/54, 704/200.1, 704/273, 381/73.1, 348/460, 348/463
• 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 2201/0052 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: G10L 19/018 Audio watermarking, i.e. embedding inaudible data in the audio signal

Abstract

A digital watermarking method performs tonal detection on a signal (e.g., audio) to identify tonal and non-tonal components. These components are analyzed to compute appropriate weighting of a digital watermark for the tonal and non-tonal components. This tonal detection method is also used in recovering the watermark. A decoding method performs tonal detection on a watermarked signal, computes weights for tonal and non-tonal components, and recovers the embedded watermark using the weights. The same or different watermark embedding schemes may be used to embed digital watermarks in the tonal and non-tonal components. Tonal analysis is used in conjunction with frequency and temporal shaping to adapt the digital watermark to the signal in which it is embedded.

Claims

1. A method of embedding a digital watermark in a signal comprising:

performing tonal detection on the signal to identify tonal components and non-tonal components;

embedding a digital watermark in the tonal and non-tonal components, including performing different watermark embedding methods in the tonal components and the non-tonal components, the different watermarking methods using different methods for modifying the signal to hide data of the digital watermark in the signal.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein one of the watermark embedding methods uses tonal shifting to modify the tonal components to embed the digital watermark.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein tonal shifting comprises shifting relative position of the tonal components to embed the digital watermark.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein tonal shifting comprises shifting the tonal components in accordance with a pattern.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the pattern comprises a pseudorandom pattern.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein a first method of the different methods changes position of at least one of the tonal components to embed data of the digital watermark, and a second method of the different methods adds a perceptually adapted watermark signal to a non tonal component to embed data of the digital watermark.

7. A computer readable medium on which is stored instructions for performing the method of claim 1.

8. A method of detecting a digital watermark in a signal comprising:

performing tonal detection on the signal to identify tonal components and non-tonal components;

detecting a digital watermark in the tonal and non-tonal components, including performing different watermark detecting methods in the tonal components and the non-tonal components, a first detecting method evaluating the tonal components to detect a first type of modification to the tonal components, and a second detecting method evaluating non-tonal components to detect a second type of modification to the non-tonal components, the first and second types of modifications being different.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein one of the watermark detecting methods evaluates the tonal components to identify tonal shifting made to embed at least a part of the digital watermark.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the tonal shifting is identified by determining shifting of relative positions of the tonal components made to embed the digital watermark.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein tonal shifting comprises shifting the tonal components in accordance with a pattern.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the pattern comprises a pseudorandom pattern.

13. The method of claim 8 wherein a first method of the different detecting methods detects changes of position of at least one of the tonal components that has been made to embed data of the digital watermark, and a second detecting method of the different methods detects a perceptually adapted watermark signal that has been added to non-tonal components to embed data of the digital watermark.

14. A computer readable medium on which is stored instructions for performing the method of claim 8.

15. A method of embedding a digital watermark in a signal comprising:

performing tonal detection on the signal to identify tonal components and non-tonal components; and

embedding a digital watermark in the tonal components by shifting position of the tonal components according to a pattern to embed data into the tonal components.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the shifting comprises shifting position according to a pseudorandom pattern.

17. A computer readable medium on which is stored instructions for performing the method of claim 15.

18. A method of detecting a digital watermark in a signal comprising:

performing tonal detection on the signal to identify tonal components and non-tonal components; and

evaluating positions of the tonal components to detect shifts in position of the tonal components, the digital watermark being conveyed in the shifts in position of the tonal components.

19. The method of claim 18 including detecting a pattern of shifts in relative positions of the tonal components, the digital watermark being conveyed in the pattern of shifts.

20. A computer readable medium on which is stored instructions for performing the method of claim 18.