Client-side watermarking using hybrid I-Frames

• US 7,983,444 B2
• Filed: 05/03/2010
• Issued: 07/19/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/02/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Qurio Holdings Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Qurio Holdings Incorporated
• Inventors: Evans, Gregory Morgan, Roberts, Thomas A., Adams, Cheryl
• Primary Examiner(s): Tabatabai; Abolfazl
• Application Number:
  US12/772,374
• Publication Number:
  US 20100208819A1
• Time in Patent Office: 442 Days
• Field of Search: 382/100, 382/166, 382/201, 382/232, 382/240, 382/244, 382/245, 370/252, 370522-527, 380/28, 380/30, 380/51, 380/54, 380/210, 380/252, 380/287, 283/72, 283 74- 81, 283/113, 713/150, 713/163, 713/176, 713/179, 715/764, 715/765, 375/131, 375/240.15, 358/3.28
• US Class Current: 382/100
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/0035 Output size adaptive watermarking
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/005 Robust watermarking, e.g. average attack or collusion attack resistant
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/0085 Time domain based watermarking, e.g. watermarks spread over several images
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2201/0053 Embedding of the watermark in the coding stream, possibly without decoding; Embedding of the watermark in the compressed domain
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/467 characterised by the embedded information being invisible, e.g. watermarking
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/48 using compressed domain processing techniques other than decoding, e.g. modification of transform coefficients, variable length coding [VLC] data or run-length data motion estimation in a transform domain H04N19/547; processing of decoded motion vectors H04N19/513
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/61 in combination with predictive coding

Abstract

A system and method for client-side watermarking of digital content using hybrid Intra-Frames (I-Frames) are provided. In general, a content source provides a compressed video stream and a hybrid I-Frame stream to a client device via a network. The hybrid I-Frame stream includes a number of low-loss I-Frames corresponding to select ones of the I-Frames in the compressed video stream to be used for client-side watermarking. The client device watermarks the I-Frames in the hybrid I-Frame stream, optionally compresses the watermarked I-Frames, and replaces the select ones of the I-Frames in the compressed video stream with the watermarked and optionally compressed I-Frames to provide a watermarked version of the compressed video stream.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

providing a compressed video stream to a client, the compressed video stream comprising a plurality of Intra-Frames (I-Frames); and

providing a hybrid I-Frame to the client, wherein the hybrid I-Frame is a low-loss version of a corresponding select one of the plurality of I-Frames in the compressed video stream to be used for client-side watermarking.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the client operates to watermark the hybrid I-Frame and replace the select one of the plurality of I-Frames in the compressed video stream with the watermarked hybrid I-Frame to provide a watermarked version of the compressed video stream at the client.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

compressing source video content according to a standard encoding algorithm to provide the compressed video stream;

identifying the select ones of the plurality of I-Frames in the compressed video stream to be used for client-side watermarking;

identifying segments of the source video content corresponding to the select ones of the plurality of I-Frames in the compressed video stream to be used for client-side watermarking; and

generating a plurality of hybrid I-Frames from the segments of the source video content corresponding to the ones of the plurality of I-Frames in the compressed video stream to be used for client-side watermarking.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein providing the compressed video stream further comprises encrypting the compressed video stream, and providing the hybrid I-Frame comprises embedding a decryption key for decrypting the encrypted, compressed video stream into the hybrid I-Frame.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the hybrid I-Frame is essentially lossless.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the hybrid I-Frame is relatively low-loss with respect to the compressed video stream.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein providing the hybrid I-Frame comprises compressing a segment of source video content corresponding to the select one of the plurality of I-Frames to be used for client-side watermarking by a factor equal to or less than 10 to provide the hybrid I-Frame.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein providing the compressed video stream comprises compressing the source video content by a factor equal to or greater than 32 to provide the compressed video stream.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising multicasting the compressed video stream and the hybrid I-Frame to a plurality of clients including the client via a network, thereby providing the compressed video stream and the hybrid I-Frame to the client.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein providing the compressed video stream to the client comprises unicasting the compressed video content to the client, and providing the hybrid I-Frame to the client comprises unicasting the hybrid I-Frame to the client.

11. A system comprising:

a) a communication interface communicatively coupling the system to a client via a network; and

b) a control system associated with the communication interface and adapted to;

i) provide a compressed video stream to the client, the compressed video stream comprising a plurality of Intra-Frames (I-Frames); and

ii) provide a hybrid I-Frame to the client, wherein the hybrid I-Frame is a low-loss version of a corresponding select one of the plurality of I-Frames in the compressed video stream to be used for client-side watermarking.

12. A method comprising:

receiving a compressed video stream from a content source, the compressed video stream comprising a plurality of Intra-Frames (I-Frames);

receiving a hybrid I-Frame from the content source, wherein the hybrid I-Frame is a low-loss version of a corresponding select one of the plurality of I-Frames in the compressed video stream;

watermarking the hybrid I-Frame; and

replacing the select one of the plurality of I-Frames in the compressed video stream with the watermarked hybrid I-Frame to provide a watermarked version of the compressed video stream.

13. A system comprising:

a) a communication interface communicatively coupling the system to a content source; and

b) a control system associated with the communication interface and adapted to;

i) receive a compressed video stream from the content source, the compressed video stream comprising a plurality of Intra-Frames (I-Frames);

ii) receive a hybrid I-Frame from the content source, wherein the hybrid I-Frame is a low-loss version of a corresponding select one of the plurality of I-Frames in the compressed video stream;

iii) watermark the hybrid I-Frame; and

iv) replacing the select one of the plurality of I-Frames in the compressed video stream with the watermarked hybrid I-Frame to provide a watermarked version of the compressed video stream.