Covert and robust mark for media identification

• US 7,853,040 B2
• Filed: 09/29/2008
• Issued: 12/14/2010
• 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:
  US12/240,582
• Publication Number:
  US 20090087021A1
• Time in Patent Office: 806 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 embedding an image that includes human recognizable information in a video sequence, comprising:

rendering the image;

obtaining a plurality of video frames from the video sequence;

combining at least part of the rendered image with each of the plurality of video frames to form modified video frames, where the parts of the rendered image are embedded in the frequency domain of each of the plurality of video frames in such a way that the information in the rendered image is human recognizable in the frequency domain of the combination of the plurality of video frames, and the modifications to the plurality of video frames are not apparent to a human observer; and

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

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising randomly varying the geometry of the rendered image.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein combining at least part of the rendered image with each of the plurality of video frames includes combining at least part of the rendered image with each video frame according to a perceptual. model.

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

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the information comprises metadata related to the video sequence.

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

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

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

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the frequency domain is the DCT domain.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the frequency domain is the Fourier domain.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the frequency domain is the Wavelet domain.

9. A method of uncovering an image containing human recognizable information from a marked video sequence created by imperceptibly embedding the image across a plurality of frames of an original video sequence, comprising:

creating a plurality of difference frames by comparing a plurality of frames from the marked video sequence to the corresponding frames in the unmarked video sequence, where comparisons involving frames from the marked video sequence in which the human recognizable information is imperceptibly embedded result in difference frames that emphasize the human recognizable information imperceptibly embedded in the marked frames; and

combining the difference frames in a predetermined manner to create a revealed image, where the combining of the difference frames in a predetermined manner proceeds until the human recognizable information in the revealed image is recognizable.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising emphasizing the image containing human recognizable information in frames in which it is embedded by applying a high pass filter to each of the plurality of difference frames.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein combining the difference frames in a predetermined manner to create a revealed image comprises averaging together the difference frames.

12. The method of claim 9 wherein the image containing human recognizable information is recognized by a device as the combination of the difference frames creates a revealed image.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the revealed image is in the spatial. domain of the combined difference frames.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein the revealed image is in the frequency domain of the combined difference frames.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the frequency domain is the DCT domain.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the frequency domain is the Fourier domain.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein the frequency domain is the Wavelet domain.