Perceptual modeling of media signals for data hiding

• US 7,822,226 B2
• Filed: 01/27/2009
• Issued: 10/26/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/19/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Digimarc Corporation
• Original Assignee: Digimarc Corporation
• Inventors: Bradley, Brett Alan, Reed, Alastair M., Hannigan, Brett T.
• Primary Examiner(s): Tabatabai; Abolfazl
• Application Number:
  US12/360,549
• Publication Number:
  US 20090207920A1
• Time in Patent Office: 637 Days
• Field of Search: 382/100, 382/232, 382/240, 713176-179, 283/72, 283 74- 81, 283/85, 283/93, 283/113, 283/901, 283/902, 370522-529, 375/240.26, 375/270, 375/277, 375/301, 375/321, 358/3.28, 380/51, 380/54, 380/210, 380/252, 380/287, 725/9, 725/20, 725/22
• 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 2201/0051 Embedding of the watermark in the spatial domain
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/3216 using Fourier transforms
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32165 using cosine transforms
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/3217 using wavelet transforms
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32187 with selective or adaptive application of the additional information, e.g. in selected frequency coefficients
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32192 according to calculated or estimated visibility of the additional information in the image

Abstract

The present invention relates generally to embedding auxiliary data and data hiding. One claim recites a method including: calculating with a processor or electronic circuitry characteristics of a media signal comprising audio or video; based at least in part on calculated characteristics of the media signal, providing a map of the media signal, wherein the map identifies at least one portion of the media signal in which plural-bit data should be steganographically encoded; transforming at least some portions of the media signal into a transform domain; and steganographically encoding with a processor or electronic circuitry auxiliary data in data representing at least the one portion of the media signal in which the plural-bit data should be steganographically encoded, and wherein at least said act of transforming or said act of steganographically encoding utilizes the map of the media signal. Other claims and combinations are also provided.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

utilizing a processor or electronic circuitry, determining characteristics of a media signal;

based at least in part on the characteristics of the media signal, and utilizing a processor or electronic circuitry, determining at least one portion of the media signal in which embedding of plural-bit data should be avoided or suppressed; and

embedding by using a processor or electronic circuitry an auxiliary signal in data representing the media signal with consideration of the at least one portion of the media signal in which embedding plural-bit data should be avoided or suppressed,

said act of embedding utilizes at least one transform domain, and

said act of embedding embeds the plural-bit data non-uniformly across at least some portions of the media signal.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the characteristics comprise at least a contrast measurement and a directional edge measurement.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said act of determining identifies portions within the media signal comprising noisy contrast relative to other portions of the media signal.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein embedding strength is increased for relatively noisy contrast portions.

5. The method of claim 1, where said determining characteristics of the media signal identifies portions within the media signal in terms of luminance contrast.

6. A machine-readable storage medium comprising instructions stored thereon to cause an electronic processor to perform the method of claim 5.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one characteristic represents a measure of directional edges, and wherein the at least one portion of the media signal in which embedding the plural-bit data should be avoided or suppressed corresponds to the measure of directional edges.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the media signal comprises at least video.

9. A computer-readable medium comprising instructions stored thereon to cause an electronic processor to perform the method of claim 1.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein said act of embedding utilizes digital watermarking, in which the data representing the media signal is altered to convey the auxiliary signal.

11. A programmed computing device comprising instructions stored in memory, said instructions cause said programmed computing device to perform the method of claim 1.

12. A method comprising:

calculating by utilizing a processor or electronic circuitry characteristics of a media signal;

based at least in part on the characteristics of the media signal, providing a map of the media signal, in which the map identifies at least one portion the media signal in which embedding of plural-bit data should be avoided or suppressed;

utilizing a processor or electronic circuitry, transforming at least some portions of the media signal into a transform domain; and

embedding by utilizing a processor or electronic circuitry an auxiliary signal in at least some portions of the transformed media signal;

in which at least said act of transforming or said act of embedding utilizes the map of the media signal.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the characteristics comprise at least a contrast measurement and a directional edge measurement.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein said act of providing also identifies portions within the media signal comprising noisy contrast relative to other portions of the media signal.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein embedding strength of the auxiliary signal is increased for relatively noisy contrast portions.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein the characteristic map identifies portions within the media signal in terms of luminance contrast.

17. The method of claim 12, wherein at least one characteristic represents a measure of directional edges, and wherein the at least one portion of the media signal in which embedding the auxiliary signal should be avoided or suppressed corresponds to the measure of directional edges.

18. The method of claim 12 wherein the media signal comprises at least video.

19. A machine-readable storage medium comprising instructions stored thereon to cause an electronic processor to perform the method of claim 12.

20. The method of claim 12 wherein said act of embedding utilizes digital watermarking.

21. The method of claim 12 wherein the at least some portions of the transformed media signal comprise transform domain coefficients.

22. A programmed computing device comprising instructions stored in memory, said instructions cause said programmed computing device to perform the method of claim 12.

23. A method comprising:

calculating by utilizing a processor or electronic circuitry characteristics of a media signal comprising audio or video;

based at least in part on calculated characteristics of the media signal, providing a map of the media signal, in which the map identifies at least one portion of the media signal in which plural-bit data should be steganographically encoded;

transforming by utilizing a processor or electronic circuitry at least some portions of the media signal into a transform domain; and

steganographically encoding by utilizing a processor or electronic circuitry auxiliary data in data representing at least the one portion of the media signal in which the plural-bit data should be steganographically encoded, and

in which at least said act of transforming or said act of steganographically encoding utilizes the map of the media signal.

24. A computer readable medium comprising instructions stored thereon to cause an electronic processor to perform the method of claim 23.

25. A programmed computing device comprising instructions stored in memory, said instructions cause said programmed computing device to perform the method of claim 23.