Cryptographic watermarking of content in fuel dispensing environments

• US 9,887,845 B2
• Filed: 10/30/2014
• Issued: 02/06/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 10/30/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Gilbarco Incorporated (Vontier Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Gilbarco Incorporated (Vontier Corp.)
• Inventors: Carapelli, Giovanni, Welch, Bruce
• Primary Examiner(s): Hoffman, Brandon
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ambaye, Samuel
• Application Number:
  US14/528,585
• Publication Number:
  US 20150121082A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,195 Days
• Field of Search: 713194, 713176, 726 34, 345168, 345520
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/1063 Personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/64 Protecting data integrity, e.g. using checksums, certificates or signatures
• CPC Class Codes: G09C 5/00 Ciphering apparatus or methods not provided for in the preceding groups, e.g. involving the concealment or deformation of graphic data such as designs, written or printed messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/608 Watermarking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/32 including means for verifying the identity or authority of a user of the system or for message authentication, e.g. authorization, entity authentication, data integrity or data verification, non-repudiation, key authentication or verification of credentials
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3247 involving digital signatures
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44008 involving operations for analysing video streams, e.g. detecting features or characteristics in the video stream arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of video in broadcast systems H04H60/59
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4627 Rights management associated to the content security in data switching network management H04L41/28; security management or policies for network security H04L63/20; access security in wireless networks H04W12/08
• 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

Abstract

Systems and methods for watermarking content and authenticating watermarked content are provided. Content is rendered on a display while watermarking information embedded in portions of the content are obtained. The watermarking information is verified to authenticate the content. If the content is not authentic, or is not authenticated within a period of time, the content can be terminated or otherwise blocked from rendering on the display.

Claims

1. A fuel dispenser for authenticating content for display, comprising:

a display;

a secure device coupled to the display configured to receive authentic watermarking information and control content rendered on the display; and

a media device configured to obtain watermarked content for rendering on the display, wherein the watermarked content includes embedded watermarking information enabling authentication of the watermarked content but which does not comprise the watermarked content, wherein the secure device comprises a processor and a memory including computer program code, the memory and the computer program code configured to, with the processor, cause the secure device to;

receive the watermarked content from the media device;

render the watermarked content on the display;

determine the watermarking information embedded in the watermarked content;

allow the watermarked content;

to be rendered on the display in response to authenticating the watermarking information with the authentic watermarking information; and

block the watermarked content rendering to the display in response to a failure to authenticate the watermarking information with the authentic watermarking information, wherein the authentication of the watermarking information is determined as the content is rendered or executed, wherein the memory and the computer program code are further configured to;

obtain watermarking description information for the content that indicates locations within the watermarked content including the watermarking information, and determine the watermarking information at least in part by extracting data from the locations within the watermarked content as the watermarked content is rendered on the display.

2. The fuel dispenser of claim 1, wherein the memory and the computer program code are further configured to extract the data from the locations within the watermarked content further based on a type of the content.

3. The fuel dispenser of claim 1, wherein the watermarked content is a video, and the locations correlate to a plurality of pixels in one or more frames in the video.

4. The fuel dispenser of claim 1, wherein the memory and the computer program code are further configured to receive the watermarking description information over a secure link.

5. The fuel dispenser of claim 4, wherein the memory and the computer program code are further configured to decrypt the watermarking description information as received over the secure link.

6. The fuel dispenser of claim 1, wherein the memory and the computer program code are further configured to authenticate the watermarking information based at least in part on comparing the watermarking information to expected values for the authentic watermarking information.

7. The fuel dispenser of claim 1, wherein the memory and the computer program code are further configured to authenticate the watermarking information based at least in part on authenticating a signature generated by the watermarking information.

8. The fuel dispenser of claim 1, wherein the memory and the computer program code are further configured to block the watermarked content from being rendered on the display where the secure device fails to successfully authenticate the watermarked content within a period of time.

9. The fuel dispenser of claim 1, further comprising:

a feature connector configured to;

switch a communication path between the secure device and the display, wherein the memory and the computer program code are further configured to control whether the watermarked content is rendered on the display by activating or deactivating the feature connector.

10. A system for generating watermarked content, comprising at least one processor and a memory including computer program code, the memory and the computer programming code configured to, with the processor, cause the system to:

obtain content for watermarking;

generate watermarking information for the content and embed the watermarking information within the content to generate watermarked content;

generate watermarking description information indicating locations within the watermarked content of the watermarking information and communicate authentic watermarking information to a secure device; and

communicate the watermarked content to a media device, wherein the watermarked content is a video, and the locations correlate to a plurality of pixels in one or more frames in the video that represent the watermarking information, said plurality of pixels each making up less than an entire frame, and wherein the watermarking information is configured to be authenticated as the content is rendered or executed to a display, such that the content is allowed to be rendered in response to authenticating the watermarking information with the authentic watermarking information and blocked from rendering in response to a failure to authenticate the watermarking information with the authentic watermarking information;

wherein the memory and the computer program code are further configured to obtain watermarking description information for the content that indicates locations within the watermarked content including the watermarking information, and determine the watermarking information at least in part by extracting data from the locations within the watermarked content as the watermarked content is rendered on the display.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the memory and the computer program code are further configured to communicate the watermarking description information to the secure device.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the memory and the computer program code are further configured to communicate the watermarking description information to the secure device over a secure link.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the memory and the computer program code are further configured to encrypt the watermarking description information for communicating to the secure device.