Content authentication and recovery using digital watermarks

• US 8,032,758 B2
• Filed: 06/12/2008
• Issued: 10/04/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/08/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Digimarc Corporation
• Original Assignee: Digimarc Corporation
• Inventors: Tian, Jun
• Primary Examiner(s): Dinh; Minh
• Assistant Examiner(s): PERUNGAVOOR, VENKATANARAY
• Application Number:
  US12/138,198
• Publication Number:
  US 20080276089A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,209 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 713/176
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/10 Protecting distributed programs or content, e.g. vending or licensing of copyrighted material protection in video systems or pay television H04N7/16 ; Digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/16 Program or content traceability, e.g. by watermarking
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/0042 Fragile watermarking, e.g. so as to detect tampering
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/005 Robust watermarking, e.g. average attack or collusion attack resistant
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2201/0051 Embedding of the watermark in the spatial domain
• 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: G06T 2201/0061 Embedding of the watermark in each block of the image, e.g. segmented watermarking
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2201/0065 Extraction of an embedded watermark; Reliable detection
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2201/0083 whereby only watermarked image required at decoder, e.g. source-based, blind, oblivious
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00007 Time or data compression or expansion audio compression based on psychoacoustics G10L19/00; data processing for reproducing audio data at different playback speeds G10L21/04; video compression H04N19/00; data compression per se H03M7/30
• 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 20/00884 involving a watermark, i.e. a barely perceptible transformation of the original data which can nevertheless be recognised by an algorithm
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00005 relating to image data
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00037 Detecting, i.e. determining the occurrence of a predetermined state H04N1/00031 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00084 Recovery or repair, e.g. self-repair
• 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 1/32219 involving changing the position of selected pixels, e.g. word shifting, or involving modulating the size of image components, e.g. of characters H04N1/32224 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2005/91335 the copy protection signal being a watermark
• 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 21/8358 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 2201/3233 : of authentication information, e.g. digital signature, watermark
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3236 : Details of authentication information generation
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/327 : which are undetectable to the naked eye, e.g. embedded codes
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3283 : Compression

Abstract

The disclosure describes methods for using digital watermarking to authenticate digital media signals, such as images, audio and video signals. It also describes techniques for using embedded watermarks to repair altered parts of a media signal when alteration is detected. Alteration is detected using hashes, digital watermarks, and a combination of hashes and digital watermarks.

Claims

1. A tangible computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon, the instructions comprising:

instructions to decode an auxiliary signal imperceptibly embedded into a host signal, wherein the host signal represents a first content object;

instructions to decompress the decoded auxiliary signal to yield a signal representing a second content object; and

instructions to compare the first and second content objects for perceptual similarity, to authenticate the host signal.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the host signal comprises audio or visual data, and wherein the audio or visual data has been altered to imperceptibly embed the auxiliary signal therein.

2. A method comprising:

Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG)-compressing media data; and

embedding data resulting from the JPEG-compressing into the media data, using a hardware processor, wherein the media data comprises audio or visual information, and wherein the embedding comprises altering the media data to steganographically encode the data resulting from the JPEG-compressing therein.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the JPEG-compressing comprises JPEG2000 compressing.

4. A method comprising:

identifying a first set of data, a second set of data, and a third set of data within processed host data;

calculating a hash of the first and second sets of data using a hardware processor;

decoding auxiliary data imperceptibly embedded in the second set of data;

decoding auxiliary data imperceptibly embedded in the third set of data;

combining the auxiliary data decoded from the second set of data with auxiliary data in the first set of data to yield a new set of host data; and

determining the new set of host data to be authenticated if the calculated hash matches the auxiliary data decoded from the third set of data.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the determining is performed using the hardware processor.

7. An apparatus comprising:

a decoder configured to decode an auxiliary signal imperceptibly embedded into a host signal, wherein the host signal represents a first content object,

wherein the decoder is further configured to decompress the decoded auxiliary signal to yield a signal representing a second content object, and

wherein the decoder is configured to compare the first and second content objects for perceptual similarity, to authenticate the host signal.

8. A tangible computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon, the instructions comprising:

instructions to divide a received media signal into blocks;

instructions to extract hidden compressed bit streams of a first region of a block from a second region in the block;

instructions to evaluate whether the block is altered by comparing the extracted compressed bit streams for the block with the media signal in the first region of the block; and

if an altered block is detected by the comparison, instructions to use a hash to identify a location of altered data, and use an extracted compressed bit stream to replace the altered data.

9. A watermarking system comprising:

a decoder configured to receive a first set of data representing a first content object and generate a second set of data representing a second content object that is perceptually similar to the first content object; and

an encoder configured to digitally watermark the second set of data into the first set of data.

10. The watermarking system of claim 9, wherein the first and second content objects comprise images, and wherein the decoder is configured to apply a wavelet-based compression technique to the first set of data to yield the second set of data.

11. The watermarking system of claim 9, wherein the first set of data comprises a group of plural samples, wherein the group has an initial sorting order,

wherein the second set of data comprises a plurality of symbols, and

wherein the encoder is configured to associate the plurality of symbols with a corresponding sorting order, determine if the initial sorting order of the group matches the corresponding sorting order, and, if not, alter the group of samples to have the corresponding sorting order.

12. The watermarking system of claim 11, wherein the encoder is configured to determine and alter other symbols in the second set of data.

13. A tangible computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon, the instructions comprising:

instructions to Joint Photograph Experts Group (JPEG)-compress media data; and

instructions to embed data resulting from the JPEG-compressing into the media data, wherein the media data comprises audio or visual information, and wherein the embedding includes altering the media data to steganographically encode the data resulting from the JPEG-compression therein.