Signal continuity assessment using embedded watermarks

• US 9,251,322 B2
• Filed: 06/08/2015
• Issued: 02/02/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 10/08/2003
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: IP Acquisitions, LLC
• Original Assignee: Verance Corporation
• Inventors: Tehranchi, Babak, Petrovic, Rade, Winograd, Joseph M., Angelico, Dean Anthony
• Primary Examiner(s): Allison, Andrae S
• Application Number:
  US14/733,716
• Publication Number:
  US 20150269362A1
• Time in Patent Office: 239 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/1063 Personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/16 Program or content traceability, e.g. by watermarking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/64 Protecting data integrity, e.g. using checksums, certificates or signatures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2111 Location-sensitive, e.g. geographical location, GPS
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2151 Time stamp
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/0071 using multiple or alternating watermarks
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2201/0065 Extraction of an embedded watermark; Reliable detection
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 19/018 Audio watermarking, i.e. embedding inaudible data in the audio signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/56 Arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition covered by groups H04H60/29-H04H60/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2463/103 applying security measure for protecting copy right protecting software against unauthorised usage in a vending or licensing environment, e.g. protection the software providers copyright G06F21/10; data processing systems or methods, specially adapted for payment schemes, architectures or protocols G06Q20/00; secrecy systems or subscription systems H04N7/16
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32101 Display, printing, storage or transmission of additional information, e.g. ID code, date and time or title
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32288 Multiple embedding, e.g. cocktail embedding, or redundant embedding, e.g. repeating the additional information at a plurality of locations in the image
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32315 Selecting a particular method from amongst a plurality of methods
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32352 Controlling detectability or arrangements to facilitate detection or retrieval of the embedded information, e.g. using markers for decoding, detection or retrieval operations H04N1/32149 and subgroups take precedence
• 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 2201/3269 of machine readable codes or marks, e.g. bar codes or glyphs

Abstract

Methods, apparatus, and systems for signal continuity assessment using embedded watermarks are provided. The embedded watermarks are recovered from the content and one or more attributes associated with the recovered watermarks are identified. A continuity of the content can then be assessed in accordance with the one or more attributes. The continuity assessment may be based on a variety of factors, including but not limited to a determined heartbeat of the recovered watermarks, a density, separation, location, or extent, of the recovered watermarks, as well as information associated with the watermarks, such as a stego key, channel bits, packet numbers, a fingerprint, or the like.

Claims

1. A method for improving detection of a change in arrangement of sections of a content, comprising:

detecting a first watermark message from a first location of multimedia content, the first detected watermark message being a strong watermark message with an associated first false positive detection probability value that is below a first predetermined threshold;

determining a presence of at least a portion of a second watermark message from a second location of the multimedia content, including;

based on watermark symbol values of the detected strong watermark message, constructing a template of watermark symbol values,

extracting watermark symbols from the second location of the multimedia content to form at least a portion of a candidate watermark message,

comparing all or part of the constructed watermark template to at least the portion of the candidate watermark message to determine, based on an error threshold value, that at least the portion of the second watermark message is present in the multimedia content, the error threshold value corresponding to a predetermined number of errors that, when detected in the candidate watermark message without using the template of watermark symbol values, corresponds to a second false positive detection probability value that is larger than the first predetermined threshold; and

detecting a location of a change in arrangement of the sections of the multimedia content based on at least the portion of the second watermark message, wherein the location of the change is detected with improved granularity compared to detection of the location of the change that is solely based on the first watermark message.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the watermark symbol values of the second watermark message are identical to corresponding symbol values of the first watermark message.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the watermark symbol values of the second watermark message have a predefined relationship to corresponding symbols of the first watermark message.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the predefined relationship includes a difference between the watermark symbol values of the first watermark message and corresponding symbols of the second watermark message due to having a first packet number value in the first watermark message that is different from a second packet number value in the second watermark message.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

detecting the first packet number from the first watermark message and the second packet number from the second watermark message, and

using the first packet number and the second packet number to determine whether the change in arrangement of sections of the multimedia content includes a cut, an insertion or a reordering of multimedia content segments.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the comparing includes comparing a fraction of the constructed watermark template to the candidate watermark message to establish the presence of a fraction of the second watermark message that identifies a boundary of the location of the change in arrangement of the sections of the multimedia content with an improved granularity.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the comparing includes comparing the entire constructed watermark template to the candidate watermark message to establish the presence of the full second watermark message.

8. A computer program product embodiment on one or more non-transitory computer readable media, comprising:

program code for detecting a first watermark message from a first location of a multimedia content, the first detected watermark message being a strong watermark message with an associated first false positive detection probability value that is below a first predetermined threshold;

program code for determining a presence of at least a portion of a second watermark message from a second location of the multimedia content, including;

based on watermark symbol values of the detected strong watermark message, constructing a template of watermark symbol values,

extracting watermark symbols from the second location of the multimedia content to form at least a portion of a candidate watermark message,

comparing all or part of the constructed watermark template to at least the portion of the candidate watermark message to determine, based on an error threshold value, that at least the portion of the second watermark message is present in the multimedia content, the error threshold value corresponding to a predetermined number of errors that, when detected in the candidate watermark message without using the template of watermark symbol values, corresponds to a second false positive detection probability value that is above the first predetermined threshold; and

program code for detecting a location of a change in arrangement of the sections of the multimedia content based on at least the portion of the second watermark message, wherein the location of the change is detected with improved granularity compared to detection of the location of the change that is solely based on the first watermark message.

9. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the watermark symbol values of the second watermark message are identical to corresponding symbol values of the first watermark message.

10. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the watermark symbol values of the second watermark message have a predefined relationship to corresponding symbols of the first watermark message.

11. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the predefined relationship includes a difference between the watermark symbol values of the first watermark message and corresponding symbols of the second watermark message due to having a first packet number value in the first watermark message that is different from a second packet number value in the second watermark message.

12. The computer program product of claim 11, further comprising:

program code for detecting the first packet number from the first watermark message and the second packet number from the second watermark message, and

program code for using the first packet number and the second packet number to determine whether the change in arrangement of sections of the multimedia content includes a cut, an insertion or a reordering of multimedia content segments.

13. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the comparing includes comparing a fraction of the constructed watermark template to the candidate watermark message to establish the presence of a fraction of the second watermark message that identifies a boundary of the location of the change in arrangement of the sections of the multimedia content with an improved granularity.

14. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the comparing includes comparing the entire constructed watermark template to the candidate watermark message to establish the presence of the full second watermark message.

15. A device, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory including processor executable code, the processor executable code, when executed by the processor, causes the processor to;

detect a first watermark message from a first location of a multimedia content, the first detected watermark message being a strong watermark message with an associated first false positive detection probability value that is below a first predetermined threshold;

determine a presence of at least a portion of a second watermark message from a second location of the multimedia content, including;

based on watermark symbol values of the detected strong watermark message, construct a template of watermark symbol values,

extract watermark symbols from the second location of the multimedia content to form at least a portion of a candidate watermark message,

compare all or part of the constructed watermark template to at least the portion of the candidate watermark message to determine, based on an error threshold value, that at least the portion of the second watermark message is present in the multimedia content, the error threshold value corresponding to a predetermined number of errors that, when detected in the candidate watermark message without using the template of watermark symbol values, corresponds to a second false positive detection probability value that is above the first predetermined threshold; and

detect a location of a change in arrangement of the sections of the multimedia content based on at least the portion of the second watermark message, wherein the location of the change is detected with improved granularity compared to detection of the location of the change that is solely based on the first watermark message.

16. The device of claim 15, wherein the watermark symbol values of the second watermark message are identical to corresponding symbol values of the first watermark message.

17. The device of claim 15, wherein the watermark symbol values of the second watermark message have a predefined relationship to corresponding symbols of the first watermark message.

18. The device of claim 17, wherein the predefined relationship includes a difference between the watermark symbol values of the first watermark message and corresponding symbols of the second watermark message due to having a first packet number value in the first watermark message that is different from a second packet number value in the second watermark message.

19. The device of claim 18, wherein the processor executable code, when executed by the processor, causes the processor to:

detect the first packet number from the first watermark message and the second packet number from the second watermark message, and

use the first packet number and the second packet number to determine whether the change in arrangement of sections of the multimedia content includes a cut, an insertion or a reordering of multimedia content segments.

20. The device of claim 15, wherein the processor executable code, when executed by the processor, causes the processor to compare a fraction of the constructed watermark template to the candidate watermark message to establish the presence of a fraction of the second watermark message that identifies a boundary of the location of the change in arrangement of the sections of the multimedia content with an improved granularity.

21. The device of claim 15, wherein the processor executable code, when executed by the processor, causes the processor to compare the entire constructed watermark template to the candidate watermark message to establish the presence of the full second watermark message.