Steganographic method and device

• US 7,870,393 B2
• Filed: 08/21/2007
• Issued: 01/11/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/07/1995
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Wistaria Trading Inc.
• Original Assignee: Wistaria Trading Inc.
• Inventors: Cooperman, Marc, Moskowitz, Scott A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Homayounmehr; Farid
• Assistant Examiner(s): Kaplan; Benjamin A
• Application Number:
  US11/894,443
• Publication Number:
  US 20080075277A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,239 Days
• Field of Search: 380/28, 380/53, 380/205, 380/207, 380/208, 713/176, 726/32
• US Class Current: 713/176
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/0021 Image watermarking
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2201/0064 for copy protection or copy management, e.g. CGMS, copy only once, one-time copy
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 19/018 Audio watermarking, i.e. embedding inaudible data in the audio signal
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00891 embedded in audio data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/04 Masking or blinding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/08 Randomization, e.g. dummy operations or using noise
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/605 Copy protection
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/608 Watermarking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0643 Hash functions, e.g. MD5, SHA, HMAC or f9 MAC
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0656 Pseudorandom key sequence combined element-for-element with data sequence, e.g. one-time-pad [OTP] or Vernam's cipher
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/12 Transmitting and receiving encryption devices synchronised or initially set up in a particular manner
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3247 involving digital signatures
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3263 involving certificates, e.g. public key certificate [PKC] or attribute certificate [AC]; Public key infrastructure [PKI] arrangements network architectures or network communication protocols for supporting authentication of entities using certificates in a packet data network H04L63/0823
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32149 Methods relating to embedding, encoding, decoding, detection or retrieval operations
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/3216 using Fourier 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 1/32245 Random or pseudorandom selection of pixels
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23614 Multiplexing of additional data and video streams arrangements for simultaneous broadcast of plural pieces of information H04H20/28
• 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 21/2541 Rights Management protecting software against unauthorised usage in a vending or licensing environment G06F21/10; security in data switching network management H04L41/28; security management or policies for network security H04L63/20; access security in wireless networks H04W12/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4348 : Demultiplexing of additional data and video streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/835 : Generation of protective data, e.g. certificates protecting software against unauthorised usage in a vending or licensing environment G06F21/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8352 : involving content or source identification data, e.g. Unique Material Identifier [UMID]
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3205 : of identification information, e.g. name or ID code H04N2201/3209 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3226 : of identification information or the like, e.g. ID code, index, title, part of an image, reduced-size image
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3233 : of authentication information, e.g. digital signature, watermark
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/327 : which are undetectable to the naked eye, e.g. embedded codes
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3281 : Encryption; Ciphering
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/1675 : Providing digital key or authorisation information for generation or regeneration of the scrambling sequence pseudo-random number generators in general G06F7/58

Abstract

An apparatus and method for encoding and decoding additional information into a stream of digitized samples in an integral manner. The information is encoded using special keys. The information is contained in the samples, not prepended or appended to the sample stream. The method makes it extremely difficult to find the information in the samples if the proper keys are not possessed by the decoder. The method does not cause a significant degradation to the sample stream. The method is used to establish ownership of copyrighted digital multimedia content and provide a disincentive to piracy of such material.

Claims

1. A device comprising:

a processor coupled to a memory;

said processor and said memory configured to execute a steganographic cipher process to watermark content, by receiving content and additional information, and watermarking said content

according to at least one mapping between said received content and said additional information using a steganographic cipher process.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein the steganographic cipher process utilizes a key to watermark the content.

3. The device of claim 1, wherein the steganographic cipher process utilizes a key to locate and extract at least one watermark.

4. The device of claim 1, wherein the steganographic cipher process watermarks the content based on frequency, time or bit-depth characteristics of the content.

5. The device of claim 1, wherein the steganographic cipher process starts at an arbitrary point in the content.

6. The device of claim 1, wherein the steganographic cipher process watermarks content imperceptibly.

7. An article of manufacture comprising a non-transitory machine-readable medium having stored thereon content encoded with additional information wherein the additional information comprising instructions steganographically encoded using a key, which instructions, when executed by a processor, result in a process comprising:

receiving a key to be used to steganographically decode additional information; and

using the received key to steganographically decode the additional information from the encoded content

wherein the key comprises at least one of a plurality of mappings between the additional information and the encoded content.

8. The article of manufacture of claim 7, wherein the additional information is encoded at one or more locations in the content.

9. The article of manufacture of claim 7, wherein the additional information is located to enable detection or decoding of the watermark.

10. The article of manufacture of claim 7, wherein the additional information is encoded at one or more locations in features of the content.

11. The article of manufacture of claim 7, wherein the additional information is encoded at the granularity of the content.

12. The article of manufacture of claim 7, wherein the additional information is integral with the perceptibility of the content.

13. The article of manufacture of claim 7, wherein the content was encoded by a watermarking process, an information hiding process, a steganographic process, or a steganographic cipher process.

14. An article of manufacture comprising a non-transitory machine-readable medium having stored thereon instructions adapted to be executed by a processor, the instructions which, when executed, result in a process comprising:

selecting a portion of the watermarked signal to decode additional information including a watermark; and

decoding the additional information in the signal according to at least one mapping between the encoded additional information and the watermarked signal such that information associated with the contents of the watermark is limited by the article of manufacture.

15. The article of manufacture of claim 14, wherein the watermark is hashed, encrypted or signed.

16. The article of manufacture of claim 14, wherein the watermark is resistant to tampering.

17. The article of manufacture of claim 14, wherein the watermark cannot be transplanted.

18. The article of manufacture of claim 14, wherein the watermark is unique to the signal.

19. The article of manufacture of claim 14, wherein the step of decoding limits information associated with the encoding.

20. An article of manufacture comprising a non-transitory machine-readable medium, having thereon stored instructions adapted to be executed by a processor, which instructions when executed result in a process comprising:

identifying locations in a signal encoded with additional information; and

extracting the additional information from the signal using a key wherein the key comprises at least one of a plurality of mappings between the additional information and the encoded signal.

21. An apparatus comprising:

a processor coupled to a memory;

a receiver for receiving content encoded with at least one digital watermark; and

a decoder for decoding the at least one digital watermark by locating and extracting the at least one digital watermark using a steganographic cipher and at least one key derived from the encoding process wherein the key comprises at least one mapping between the at least one digital watermark and the encoded content.

22. The apparatus according to claim 21, wherein said apparatus includes a second processor configured for processing keys.

23. The apparatus according to claim 21, wherein said apparatus includes a second processor configured for processing cryptographic information.

24. The apparatus according to claim 21, wherein said first and said second processors are the same processor.

25. An article of manufacture comprising a non-transitory machine-readable medium, having thereon stored instructions adapted to be executed by a processor, which instructions when executed result in a process comprising:

identifying watermarking locations within the digital signal;

receiving additional information including a watermark; and

embedding the additional information including a watermark into the identified locations in the digital signal using a key wherein the key comprises at least one mapping between the additional information and the digital signal being embedded.

26. The article of manufacture of claim 25, wherein keys are used for the identifying or embedding step or both the identifying and embedding steps.

27. The article of manufacture of claim 25, wherein said keys are capable of determining the size of the additional information measured in bits.

28. The article of manufacture of claim 25, further comprising embedding the additional information by a random or pseudo random process.

29. The article of manufacture of claim 25, further comprising embedding the additional information to differentiate between two machine-readable mediums containing copies of the same embedded digital signal.

30. A computer-implemented process for decoding additional information from a watermarked signal comprising:

selecting, in a machine, a portion of the watermarked signal to decode additional information including a watermark; and

decoding, with the machine, the additional information in the signal according to at least one mapping between the encoded additional information and the watermarked signal such that information associated with the contents of the watermark is limited by the article of manufacture.

31. The process of claim 30, wherein the watermark is hashed, encrypted or signed.

32. The process of claim 30, wherein the watermark is resistant to tampering.

33. The process of claim 30, wherein the watermark cannot be transplanted.

34. The process of claim 30, wherein the watermark is unique to the signal.

35. The process of claim 30, wherein the step of decoding limits information associated with the encoding.

36. A computer-implemented process for extracting additional information from a steganographically encoded signal comprising:

identifying, in a machine, locations in a signal encoded with additional information; and

extracting, with the machine, the additional information from the signal using a key from a database wherein the key comprises at least one of a plurality of mappings between the additional information and the encoded signal.

37. The computer-implemented process of claim 36, wherein the additional information is encoded at one or more locations in the signal.

38. The computer-implemented process of claim 36, wherein the additional information is located to enable detection or decoding of a watermark.

39. The computer-implemented process of claim 36, wherein the additional information is encoded at one or more locations in features of the signal.

40. The computer-implemented process of claim 36, wherein the additional information is encoded at the granularity of the signal.

41. The computer-implemented process of claim 36, wherein the additional information is integral with the perceptibility of the signal.

42. The computer-implemented process of claim 36, wherein the signal was encoded by a watermarking process, an information hiding process, a steganographic process, or a steganographic cipher process.

43. A computer-implemented process for decoding at least one digital watermark from content comprising:

receiving, in a machine, content encoded with at least one digital watermark; and

decoding, with the machine, the at least one digital watermark by locating and extracting the at least one digital watermark using a steganographic cipher and at least one key derived from the encoding process wherein the key determines at least one mapping of the at least one digital watermark.

44. The computer-implemented process of claim 43, wherein the digital watermark is encoded at one or more locations in the content.

45. The computer-implemented process of claim 43, wherein the digital watermark is located to enable detection or decoding of the watermark.

46. The computer-implemented process of claim 43, wherein the digital watermark is encoded at one or more locations in features of the content.

47. The computer-implemented process of claim 43, wherein the digital watermark is encoded at the granularity of the content.

48. The computer-implemented process of claim 43, wherein the digital watermark is integral with the perceptibility of the content.

49. The computer-implemented process of claim 43, wherein the content was encoded by a watermarking process, an information hiding process, a steganographic process, or a steganographic cipher process.

50. A computer-implemented process to decode additional information from steganographically encoded data using a key comprising:

receiving, in a machine, data steganographically encoded with additional information;

receiving, at said machine, a key from a database to steganographically decode additional information; and

using, at said machine, the received key to steganographically decode the additional information from the received steganographically encoded data wherein the key determines at least one mapping of the additional information.

51. The computer-implemented process of claim 50, wherein the additional information is encoded at one or more locations in the data.

52. The computer-implemented process of claim 50, wherein the additional information is located to enable detection or decoding of a watermark.

53. The computer-implemented process of claim 50, wherein the additional information is encoded at one or more locations in features of the data.

54. The computer-implemented process of claim 50, wherein the additional information is encoded at the granularity of the data.

55. The computer-implemented process of claim 50, wherein the additional information is integral with the perceptibility of the data.

56. The computer-implemented process of claim 50, wherein the data was encoded by a watermarking process, an information hiding process, a steganographic process, or a steganographic cipher process.

57. A computer-implemented process for embedding additional information into a digital signal comprising:

identifying, in a machine, watermarking locations within the digital signal;

receiving, at said machine, additional information including a watermark; and

embedding, at said machine, the additional information including a watermark into the identified locations in the digital signal using a key from a memory wherein the key comprises at least one mapping between the additional information and the digital signal being embedded.

58. The process of claim 57, wherein keys are used for the identifying or embedding step or both the identifying and embedding steps.

59. The process of claim 57, wherein said keys are capable of determining the size of the additional information measured in bits.

60. The process of claim 57, further comprising embedding the additional information by a random or pseudo random process.

61. The process of claim 57, further comprising embedding the additional information to differentiate between two machine-readable mediums containing copies of the same embedded digital signal.