Watermarking via quantization of statistics of overlapping regions

• US 20040001605A1
• Filed: 06/28/2002
• Published: 01/01/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 06/28/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Venkatesan, Ramarathnam, Kesal, Mustafa, Mihcak, M. Kivanc
• Granted Patent: US 7,095,873 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/100
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/0028 Adaptive watermarking, e.g. Human Visual System [HVS]-based watermarking
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2201/0052 Embedding of the watermark in the frequency domain
• 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

Abstract

An implementation of a technology, described herein, for facilitating watermarking of digital goods. At least one implementation, described herein, performs quantization watermarking based upon semi-global characteristics of multiple regions of the digital good. Such regions are permissively overlapping. The scope of the present invention is pointed out in the appending claims.

Claims

1. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a computer, performs a method facilitating protection of digital goods, the method comprising:

obtaining a digital good;

transforming the good;

partitioning the transform of the good into a plurality of permissively overlapped regions;

calculating statistics of one or more the regions of the plurality, so that the statistics of a region are representative of it;

quantizing such statistics;

generating a perceptual-compensation factor, which is an approximate representation a combination of the quantized statistics of the plurality of the regions;

marking the digital good with the perceptual-compensation factor.

2. A medium as recited in claim 1, wherein the partitioning comprises segmenting transform into a plurality of overlapped regions.

3. A medium as recited in claim 1, wherein the partitioning comprises pseudorandomly segmenting transform into a plurality of regions.

4. A medium as recited in claim 1, wherein the partitioning comprises pseudorandomly segmenting transform into a plurality of regions, wherein such regions are not restrictively non-overlapping.

5. A medium as recited in claim 1, wherein the generating comprises finding a minimum norm of additive quantization disturbance.

6. A medium as recited in claim 1, wherein the transforming comprises finding a minimum distance of multiplicative quantization disturbance.

7. A medium as recited in claim 1, wherein the statistics of the calculating comprises one or more finite order moments of a segment.

8. A medium as recited in claim 1, wherein the marking comprises embedding a watermark via quantization.

9. A modulated signal generated by a medium as recited in claim 1.

10. A computer comprising one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 1.

15. A medium as recited in claim 1, wherein the partitioning comprises pseudorandomly segmenting transform into a plurality of regions, wherein such regions are not restrictively non-overlapping.

11. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a computer, performs a method facilitating protection of digital goods, the method comprising:

transforming a digital good;

partitioning the transform of the good into a plurality regions;

calculating statistics of regions, so that the statistics of a region are representative of it;

generating a quantization-noise factor, which is an approximate representation a quantization of the statistics the plurality of regions;

marking the digital good with the perceptual-compensation factor.

12. A medium as recited in claim 11, wherein the partitioning comprises segmenting transform into a plurality of permissively overlapped regions.

13. A medium as recited in claim 11, wherein the partitioning comprises segmenting transform into a plurality of overlapped regions.

14. A medium as recited in claim 11, wherein the partitioning comprises pseudorandomly segmenting transform into a plurality of regions.

16. A medium as recited in claim 11, wherein the generating comprises finding a minimum norm of additive quantization disturbance.

17. A medium as recited in claim 11, wherein the transforming comprises finding a minimum distance of multiplicative quantization disturbance.

18. A medium as recited in claim 11, wherein the statistics of the calculating comprises one or more finite order moments of a region.

19. A medium as recited in claim 11, wherein the generating a quantization-noise factor comprises:

finding a minimum norm quantization noise vector such that watermarked data have quantized statistics;

perceptually correcting the minimum noise vector with a perceptual compensation vector.

20. A medium as recited in claim 11, wherein the marking comprises embedding a watermark via quantization.

21. A modulated signal generated by a medium as recited in claim 11.

22. A computer comprising one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 11.

23. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a computer, performs a method facilitating protection of digital goods, the method comprising

obtaining a digital good;

using quantization, watermarking the good with the watermark, wherein such quantization is based upon semi-global characteristics of the regions of the good, the regions permissively overlapping.

24. A medium as recited in claim 23, wherein the semi-global characteristics are representative characteristics of more than a single element of a good.

25. A medium as recited in claim 23, wherein the semi-global characteristics comprise statistics representative of one or more regions of the good.

26. A medium as recited in claim 23, wherein the semi-global characteristics comprise statistics representative of one or more overlapped regions of the good.

27. A medium as recited in claim 23, wherein the semi-global characteristics comprise statistics representative of one or more pseudorandomly sized regions of the good.

28. A medium as recited in claim 23, wherein the semi-global characteristics comprise statistics representative of one or more pseudorandomly dimensioned regions of the good.

29. A medium as recited in claim 23, wherein the semi-global characteristics comprise statistics representative of one or more pseudorandomly dimensioned regions of the good, wherein such regions are overlapped.

30. A modulated signal generated by a medium as recited in claim 23.

31. A modulated signal generated in accordance with the following acts:

providing a server computer in a communications with a communications network;

receiving input from a client computer by way of the communications network, the input providing a parameter indicative of a request for a modulated signal generated by a medium as recited in claim 23;

generating the signal generated by a medium as recited in claim 23;

sending the modulated signal via the communications network.

32. A computer comprising one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 23.

36. A medium as recited in claim 23, wherein the semi-global characteristics comprise statistics representative of one or more overlapped regions of the good.

33. A method for facilitating the protection of digital goods, the method comprising

obtaining a digital good;

obtaining a watermark;

using quantization, watermarking the good with the watermark, wherein such quantization is based upon semi-global characteristics of the regions of the good, the regions permissively overlapping.

34. A method as recited in claim 33, wherein the semi-global characteristics are representative characteristics of more than a single element of a good.

35. A method as recited in claim 33, wherein the semi-global characteristics comprise statistics representative of one or more regions of the good.

37. A method as recited in claim 33, wherein the semi-global characteristics comprise statistics representative of one or more pseudorandomly dimensioned regions of the good.

38. A method as recited in claim 33, wherein the semi-global characteristics comprise statistics representative of one or more pseudorandomly dimensioned regions of the good, wherein such regions are adjacent and non-contiguous.

39. A computer comprising one or more computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the computer, perform the method as recited in claim 33.

40. A system for facilitating the protection of digital goods, the system comprising:

a partitioner configured to segment a digital good into a plurality of permissively overlapped regions;

a region-statistics calculator configured to calculate statistics of one or more of the plurality of regions, wherein the statistics of a region are representative of that region;

a region quantizer configured to quantize such statistics of a region

a good marker configured to generate a marked good approximately equivalent to a combination of the digital good and a perceptual-compensation factor, the factor being an approximate representation a combination of the quantized statistics of the plurality of the regions.

41. A system as recited in claim 40, wherein the partitioner is further configured to pseudorandomly segment the good.

42. A system as recited in claim 40, wherein the partitioner is further configured to pseudorandomly segment the good, wherein such regions overlap.