Digital watermarking apparatus and methods

• US 20050111723A1
• Filed: 10/25/2004
• Published: 05/26/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Digimarc Corporation
• Original Assignee: Digimarc Corporation
• Inventors: Hannigan, Brett T., McKinley, Tyler J.
• Granted Patent: US 8,103,877 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/135
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/0021 Image watermarking
• CPC Class Codes: G07D 7/0034 using watermarks
• CPC Class Codes: G07D 7/162 Length or width
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 21/003 using tactile presentation of the information, e.g. Braille displays

Abstract

The present invention relates to digital watermarking methods and systems. In one embodiment, a handheld device displays a digitally watermarked image at an event center. An optical scanner captures optical scan data representing the device display. A watermark decoder analyzes the captured optical scan data to obtain the watermark. The watermark is used to determine authorized entry. The handheld device may include a cell phone or other portable computing device.

Claims

1. A method of verifying a ticket stored on a handheld computing device, the handheld computing device having a display to display the ticket, the ticket including a digital watermark having an identifier, said method comprising:

upon presentment of a displayed electronic ticket, decoding the digital watermark from the displayed ticket to retrieve the identifier; and

verifying the ticket based on the identifier.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein said verifying comprises comparing the identifier to a set of preauthorized identifiers, wherein when the identifier is included in the set of preauthorized identifiers, the ticket is verified.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein said verifying comprises comparing the identifier to a set of preauthorized identifiers, wherein when the identifier is not included in the set of preauthorized identifiers, the ticket is not verified.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein said verifying comprises accessing an online-database to determine whether the identifier is listed in the database.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the on-line database comprises a listing of authorized tickets, categorized by identifiers.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the ticket comprises at least one of an image, a video signal, and an image signal.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the handheld computing device comprises a cell phone.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the handheld computing device comprises a cell phone, and the ticket comprises an image.

9. A method to gain entry to an event or movie comprising:

purchasing a ticket online;

receiving an electronic ticket, the electronic ticket being stored in a handheld computing device, the handheld computing device comprising a display, wherein the electronic ticket includes a digital watermark embedded therein;

displaying the electronic ticket on the display; and

presenting the display to a watermark reading device, which captures optical scan data representing the display and decodes the watermark from the optical scan data.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein entry is gained when the watermark is verified.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the electronic ticket comprises at least one of an image and video.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the handheld computing device comprises a cell phone.

13. A method to gain entry to an event or movie comprising:

receiving an electronic ticket comprising audio, the electronic ticket being stored in a handheld computing device, the handheld computing device comprising an audio output, wherein the audio includes steganographic encoding therein;

outputting the steganographically encoded audio through the output of the handheld computing device in proximity of a steganographic decoding device,

wherein the steganographic reading device analyzes the outputted encoded electronic ticket to decode the steganographic encoding, and

wherein entry is gained when the steganographic encoding is verified.

14. A method to regulate entry to an event or secure area, said method comprising:

upon presentment of a handheld computing device including a display, capturing optical scan data of at least a portion of the display, wherein the display includes an image or video displayed thereon, and wherein the image or video includes steganographic encoding, the steganographic encoding including a plural-bit message;

analyzing the optical scan data to obtain the plural-bit message; and

based at least in part on the plural-bit message, regulating entry to an event or secure area.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein said regulating entry to an event or secure area comprises comparing the plural-bit message to predetermined data.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the predetermined data is stored in a remote repository.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein the handheld computing device comprises a cell phone.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein the steganographic encoding comprises digital watermarking.

19. A method to regulate entry to an event or restricted area, said method comprising:

upon presentment of a handheld computing device including an output, capturing audio emanating from the output, wherein the audio includes at least one steganographic watermark embedded therein, the steganographic watermark including a plural-bit message;

analyzing the captured audio to obtain the plural-bit message; and

based at least in part on the plural-bit message, regulating entry to an event or secure area.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein said regulating entry to an event or secure area comprises comparing the plural-bit message to predetermined data.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the predetermined data is stored in a remote repository.

22. The method of claim 19, wherein the handheld computing device comprises a cell phone.

23. The method of claim 19, wherein the steganographic encoding comprises digital watermarking.

24. A method comprising:

upon presentment of a handheld computing device including a display, capturing image data representing at least a portion of the display, wherein the display comprises an image displayed thereon, the image comprising a digital watermark embedded therein;

decoding the digital watermark from the captured image data to recover plural-bit data;

triggering an action based at least in part on the plural-bit data.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the action comprises at least one of i) regulating entry to an event or restricted area;

and ii) verify the device or an authorized user of the device.

26. The method of claim 24, wherein the handheld computing device comprises at least one of a cell phone and wristwatch.