Digital watermarks

• US 8,644,548 B2
• Filed: 09/21/2011
• Issued: 02/04/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/16/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Digimarc Corporation
• Original Assignee: Digimarc Corporation
• Inventors: Rhoads, Geoffrey B., Carr, J. Scott
• Primary Examiner(s): TUCKER, WESLEY J
• Application Number:
  US13/238,306
• Publication Number:
  US 20120008823A1
• Time in Patent Office: 867 Days
• Field of Search: 382/100, 382/181, 382/232, 382/235, 382/239
• US Class Current: 382/100
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/41 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/48 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• 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 2201/0065 Extraction of an embedded watermark; Reliable detection
• 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 1/32277 Compression
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/327 which are undetectable to the naked eye, e.g. embedded codes
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/33357 Compression mode

Abstract

The present invention relates generally to digital watermarking and steganographic data hiding. In one embodiment a method of rendering content to a user is provided. The rendered content includes a digital watermark embedded therein. In another embodiment, digital watermarking is utilized to facilitate purchase or lease of audio or video content over a network or with a remote computer. In still another embodiment, a compression characteristic is determined, and subsequent steganographic embedding is influenced based on the characteristic. Other embodiments are provided as well.

Claims

1. A method comprising;

obtaining first audio content or first video content, wherein the first audio content or first video content includes a steganographic signal embedded therein;

determining at least one compression characteristic associated with the embedded first audio content or first video content using at least a programmed electronic processor; and

adjusting steganographic embedding of second audio content or second video content based at least in part on the compression characteristic.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the steganographic embedding utilizes a transform domain.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one compression characteristic comprises a bit rate.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one compression characteristic is associated with a relationship between steganographic embedding and compression.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the steganographic embedding embeds a digital watermark.

6. A method comprising:

obtaining compressed content;

determining at least one characteristic associated with compression of the compressed content using at least a programmed electronic processor; and

adjusting steganographic embedding of content based at least in part on the characteristic associated with the compression, wherein the steganographic embedding is configured to hide plural-bits in content through alterations to data representing content, and wherein the plural-bits comprise executable code.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the at least one characteristic is associated with a relationship between steganographic embedding and compression.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the adjusting enables relatively more robust stegangraphic embedding with respect to the compression.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the data representing content comprises transform domain coefficients.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein the executable code is configured to permit access to the compressed code.

11. A method comprising:

obtaining compressed content;

determining at least one characteristic associated with compression of the compressed content using at least a programmed electronic processor; and

adjusting detection of a steganographically hidden code based at least in part on the characteristic associated with the compression, wherein the steganographically hidden code comprises plural-bits hidden in the content through alterations to data representing the content, and wherein the steganographically hidden code comprises executable code.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the data representing the content comprises transform domain coefficients.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the content comprises audio or video.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the executable code is configured to permit access to the compressed code.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the content comprises audio and video obtained from a remote system including audio or video available for purchase.

16. A method comprising:

obtaining compressed content;

determining at least one characteristic associated with compression of the compressed content using at least a programmed electronic processor; and

adjusting steganographic embedding of content based at least in part on the characteristic associated with the compression, wherein the steganographic embedding is configured to hide plural-bits in content through alterations to data representing content, and wherein the plural-bits comprise a pointer to executable code.

17. A method comprising:

obtaining compressed content;

determining at least one characteristic associated with compression of the compressed content using at least a programmed electronic processor; and

adjusting detection of a steganographically hidden code based at least in part on the characteristic associated with the compression, wherein the steganographically hidden code comprises plural-bits hidden in the content through alterations to data representing the content, and wherein the steganographically hidden code comprises a pointer to executable code.