Signal continuity assessment using embedded watermarks

• US 9,704,211 B2
• Filed: 01/26/2017
• Issued: 07/11/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 10/08/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• 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:
  US15/416,939
• Publication Number:
  US 20170140493A1
• Time in Patent Office: 166 Days
• Field of Search: None
• 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 use embedded watermarks to determine whether the segments of a multimedia content has been rearranged. 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 detecting a change in arrangement of sections of a content, comprising:

receiving a multimedia content, the multimedia content including a plurality of watermark messages embedded therein, each embedded watermark message including a counter value such that counter values from consecutively embedded watermarks form a predefined sequence of numbers indicative of an original sequential arrangement of the multimedia content at the time of embedding of the plurality of watermark messages;

extracting a plurality of watermark messages from the received multimedia content using a watermark extractor that is implemented at least partially in hardware;

determining a separation between a first extracted watermark message and a second extracted watermark message within the received multimedia content;

obtaining a first counter value from the first extracted watermark message and a second counter value from the second extracted watermark message;

obtaining a difference between the first counter value and the second counter value; and

comparing the obtained difference between the first and the second counter values with the separation between the first and the second extracted watermark messages to determine whether or not segments of the received multimedia content that include the first watermark message and the second watermark message have been rearranged from the original sequence of arrangement.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the predefined sequence of numbers is a sequence of sequentially increasing numbers.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein determining a separation between the first and the second extracted watermark messages includes determining a difference in time between the first watermark message and the second watermark message in the received multimedia content.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the difference in time is further normalized with respect to a duration of the first watermark message.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein upon a determination that the segments of the received multimedia content that include the first watermark message and the second watermark message have been rearranged from their original sequence of arrangement, further determining that rearrangement of the content segments is due to out-of-order playback of segments of the multimedia content.

6. The method of claim 1, further including accessing a metadata server to obtain additional information regarding the received multimedia content.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the metadata server includes a time of embedding of at least one watermark message.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein determination as to whether or not the segments of the received multimedia content that include the first watermark message and the second watermark message have been rearranged from the original sequence of arrangement includes determining that:

(a) the segment of the received multimedia content that includes the first watermark message is separated from the segment of the received multimedia content that includes the second watermark message more than an expected separation in the original sequential arrangement, or

(b) the segment of the received multimedia content that includes the first watermark message is separated from the segment of the received multimedia content that includes the second watermark message less than an expected separation in the original sequential arrangement.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the received multimedia content includes one or more of:

an audio content, a video content or a still image.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of watermark messages further includes a serial number or a content identification value.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

processing at least the first and the second watermark messages to form an event, the event including only watermark messages that have identical serial numbers or identical content identification values; and

determining a start time of the event.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising accessing a metadata server to obtain timing information related to the received multimedia content and using the timing information for determining the start time.

13. 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;

receive a multimedia content, the multimedia content including a plurality of watermark messages embedded therein, each embedded watermark message including a counter value such that counter values from consecutively embedded watermarks form a predefined sequence of numbers indicative of an original sequential arrangement of the multimedia content at the time of embedding of the plurality of watermark messages;

extract a plurality of watermark messages from the received multimedia content;

determine a separation between a first extracted watermark message and a second extracted watermark message within the received multimedia content;

obtain a first counter value from the first extracted watermark message and a second counter value from the second extracted watermark message;

obtain a difference between the first counter value and the second counter value; and

compare the obtained difference between the first and the second counter values with the separation between the first and the second extracted watermark messages to determine whether or not segments of the received multimedia content that include the first watermark message and the second watermark message have been rearranged from the original sequence of arrangement.

14. The device of claim 13, wherein the predefined sequence of numbers is a sequence of sequentially increasing numbers.

15. The device of claim 13, wherein the processor executable code, when executed by the processor, causes the processor to determine the separation between the first and the second extracted watermark messages based on a determination of a difference in time between the first watermark message and the second watermark message in the received multimedia content.

16. The device of claim 15, wherein the processor executable code, when executed by the processor, further causes the processor to normalize the difference in time with respect to a duration of the first watermark message.

17. The device of claim 13, wherein the processor executable code, when executed by the processor, causes the device to, upon a determination that the segments of the received multimedia content that include the first watermark message and the second watermark message have been rearranged from the original sequence of arrangement, determine that rearrangement of the content segments is due to out-of-order playback of segments of the multimedia content.

18. The device of claim 13, wherein the processor executable code, when executed by the processor, further causes the processor to access a metadata server to obtain additional information regarding the received multimedia content.

19. The device of claim 18, wherein the metadata server includes a time of embedding of at least one watermark message.

20. The device of claim 13, wherein the processor executable code, when executed by the processor, causes the processor to determine whether or not the segments of the received multimedia content that include the first watermark message and the second watermark message have been rearranged from their original sequence of arrangement by determining that:

(a) the segment of the received multimedia content that includes the first watermark message is separated from the segment of the received multimedia content that includes the second watermark message more than an expected separation in the original sequential arrangement, or

(b) the segment of the received multimedia content that includes the first watermark message is separated from the segment of the received multimedia content that includes the second watermark message less than an expected separation in the original sequential arrangement.

21. The device of claim 13, wherein the received multimedia content includes one or more of:

an audio content, a video content or a still image.

22. The device of claim 13, wherein each of the plurality of watermark messages further includes a serial number or a content identification value.

23. The device of claim 22, wherein the processor executable code, when executed by the processor, further causes the processor to:

process at least the first and the second watermark messages to form an event, the event including only watermark messages that have identical serial numbers or identical content identification values; and

determine a start time of the event.

24. The device of claim 23, wherein the processor executable code, when executed by the processor, further causes the processor to access a metadata server to obtain timing information related to the multimedia content and use the timing information for determining of the start time.

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

program code for receiving a multimedia content, the multimedia content including a plurality of watermark messages embedded therein, each embedded watermark message including a counter value such that counter values from consecutively embedded watermarks form a predefined sequence of numbers indicative of an original sequential arrangement of the multimedia content at the time of embedding of the plurality of watermark messages;

program code for extracting a plurality of watermark messages from the received multimedia content;

program code for determining a separation between a first extracted watermark message and a second extracted watermark message within the received multimedia content;

program code for obtaining a first counter value from the first extracted watermark message and a second counter value from the second extracted watermark message;

program code for obtaining a difference between the first counter value and the second counter value;

program code for comparing the obtained difference between the first and the second counter values with the separation between the first and the second extracted watermark messages to determine whether or not segments of the received multimedia content that include the first watermark message and the second watermark message have been rearranged from their original sequence of arrangement.