Media watermarking by biasing randomized statistics

• US 7,539,870 B2
• Filed: 02/10/2004
• Issued: 05/26/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/10/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Venkatesan, Ramarathnam, Mihcak, Mehmet Kivanc, Kesal, Mustafa
• Primary Examiner(s): Moise; Emmanuel L
• Assistant Examiner(s): Khoshnoodi; Nadia
• Application Number:
  US10/775,791
• Publication Number:
  US 20050175179A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,932 Days
• Field of Search: 708/400, 708/403, 382/100
• US Class Current: 713/176
• 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: G11B 20/00173 wherein the origin of the content is checked, e.g. determining whether the content has originally been retrieved from a legal disc copy or another trusted source
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00891 embedded in audio data

Abstract

The present invention leverages randomly generated areas with random attributes from two-dimensional media forms to embed information relating to a media'"'"'s ownership and/or distribution source. This provides a means to establish a media'"'"'s source despite attacks. By providing embedded user-unique identification, media can enable detection for identifying the source of copied media without the embedded information substantially interfering with the intended purpose of the media itself. In one instance of the present invention, media is transformed into a two-dimensional media form with randomly generated areas having a subset of overlapping areas. User-unique keys are then utilized to determine attributes for each of the areas. This permits creation of statistically unique locations for each user key. The statistical qualities are biased and utilized to determine a logarithmic magnitude watermark value to embed in the media at that location. Detection is performed by utilizing a statistical correlation method to determine a user.

Claims

1. A method for facilitating media watermarking, comprising:

utilizing, at least in part, biased, randomized statistics to determine at least one mark value for media by generating random areas with a subset of overlapping areas within a two-dimensional form of the media, randomly assigning an entry value to each random area utilizing a user key, and determining the mark value at a particular location of the two-dimensional media form utilizing at least one Bernoulli parameter derived from the random area entry values;

determining the mark value by determining a number of random areas containing the particular location, determining a number of random areas containing the particular location with a first particular entry characteristic, determining a number of random areas containing the particular location with a second particular entry characteristic, calculating a Bernoulli parameter based, at least in part, on the first and second particular entry characteristics and a bias value, and selecting the mark value based on the Bernoulli parameter,

wherein the Bernoulli parameter calculated utilizing at least one equation;

A=B,p(i,j)=drawn uniformly from (1−

p,p);

where A denotes a number of random areas possessing the first particular entry characteristic, B denotes a number of random areas possessing the second particular entry characteristic, p denotes a predetermined probability variable, bias denotes the bias value, and p(i,j) denotes the Bernoulli parameter for location (i,j) within the two-dimensional form of the media;

embedding the mark value into at least one location in the media, and

recording the media containing the embedded mark value on a computer-readable storage medium.

2. The method of claim 1, the two-dimensional form of the digital media comprising a form generated by a Short-Time Fourier Transform (STFT) method applied to a time-domain audio signal.

3. The method of claim 2, the Short-Time Fourier Transform (STFT) comprising a Modulated Complex Lapped Transformation (MCLT) method.

4. The method of claim 1, the digital media comprising an audio signal.

5. The method of claim 4, embedding the mark value into the digital media further comprising:

limiting the mark value embedding locations to a range of audio signal frequencies from 100 Hz to 3,000 Hz in the audio signal.

6. A computing device employing the method of claim 1 comprising at least one computing environment selected from the group consisting of a computer, a server, and a handheld electronic device.

7. A method for facilitating media watermarking, comprising:

utilizing, at least in part, biased, randomized statistics to determine at least one mark value for media by generating random areas with a subset of overlapping areas within a two-dimensional form of the media, randomly assigning an entry value to each random area utilizing a user key, and determining the mark value at a particular location of the two-dimensional media form utilizing at least one Bernoulli parameter derived from the random area entry values;

determining the mark value by determining a number of random areas containing the particular location, determining a number of random areas containing the particular location with a first particular entry characteristic, determining a number of random areas containing the particular location with a second particular entry characteristic, calculating a Bernoulli parameter based, at least in part, on the first and second particular entry characteristics and a bias value, and selecting the mark value based on the Bernoulli parameter,

wherein the Bernoulli parameter calculated utilizing at least one equation

$A><br><br>B,p<br><br>\left(i,j\right)=\frac{p<br><br>\left(A+\mathrm{bias}\right)+\left(1-p\right)<br><br>B}{A+\mathrm{bias}+B};<br><br>$

where A denotes a number of random areas possessing the first particular entry characteristic, B denotes a number of random areas possessing the second particular entry characteristic, p denotes a predetermined probability variable, bias denotes the bias value, and p(i, j) denotes the Bernoulli parameter for location (i, j) within the two-dimensional form of the media;

embedding the mark value into at least one location in the media; and

recording the media containing the embedded mark value on a computer-readable storage medium.

8. The method of claim 7, the two-dimensional form of the digital media comprising a form generated by a Short-Time Fourier Transform (STFT) method applied to a time-domain audio signal.

9. The method of claim 8, the Short-Time Fourier Transform (STFT) comprising a Modulated Complex Lapped Transformation (MCLT) method.

10. The method of claim 7, the digital media comprising an audio signal.

11. The method of claim 10, embedding the mark value into the digital media further comprising:

limiting the mark value embedding locations to a range of audio signal frequencies from 100 Hz to 3,000 Hz in the audio signal.

12. A computing device employing the method of claim 7 comprising at least one computing environment selected from the group consisting of a computer, a server, and a handheld electronic device.

13. A method for facilitating media watermarking, comprising:

utilizing, at least in part, biased, randomized statistics to determine at least one mark value for media by generating random areas with a subset of overlapping areas within a two-dimensional form of the media, randomly assigning an entry value to each random area utilizing a user key, and determining the mark value at a particular location of the two-dimensional media form utilizing at least one Bernoulli parameter derived from the random area entry values;

determining the mark value by determining a number of random areas containing the particular location, determining a number of random areas containing the particular location with a first particular entry characteristic, determining a number of random areas containing the particular location with a second particular entry characteristic, calculating a Bernoulli parameter based, at least in part, on the first and second particular entry characteristics and a bias value, and selecting the mark value based on the Bernoulli parameter,

wherein the Bernoulli parameter calculated utilizing at least one equation

$A<<br><br>B,\mathrm{then}<br><br><br><br>p<br><br>\left(i,j\right)=\frac{\mathrm{pA}+\left(1-p\right)<br><br>\left(B+\mathrm{bias}\right)}{A+\mathrm{bias}+B};<br><br>$

where A denotes a number of random areas possessing the first particular entry characteristic, B denotes a number of random areas possessing the second particular entry characteristic, p denotes a predetermined probability variable, bias denotes the bias value, and p(i,j) denotes the Bernoulli parameter for location (i,j) within the two-dimensional form of the media;

embedding the mark value into at least one location in the media; and

recording the media containing the embedded mark value on a computer-readable storage medium.

14. The method of claim 13, the two-dimensional form of the digital media comprising a form generated by a Short-Time Fourier Transform (STFT) method applied to a time-domain audio signal.

15. The method of claim 14, the Short-Time Fourier Transform (STFT) comprising a Modulated Complex Lapped Transformation (MCLT) method.

16. The method of claim 13, the digital media comprising an audio signal.

17. The method of claim 16, embedding the mark value into the digital media further comprising:

limiting the mark value embedding locations to a range of audio signal frequencies from 100 Hz to 3,000 Hz in the audio signal.

18. A computing device employing the method of claim 13 comprising at least one computing environment selected from the group consisting of a computer, a server, and a handheld electronic device.