Digital Watermarking Compressed Video Captured From Aerial Sensors

• US 20070052727A1
• Filed: 08/17/2006
• Published: 03/08/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/05/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Digimarc Corporation
• Original Assignee: Digimarc Corporation
• Inventors: Rhoads, Geoffrey
• Granted Patent: US 7,650,008 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/629
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 11/00 Photogrammetry or videogrammetry, e.g. stereogrammetry; Photographic surveying
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/58 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/7854 using shape G06F16/7837 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/0021 Image watermarking
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32154 Transform domain methods H04N1/32309 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32203 Spatial or amplitude domain methods H04N1/32309 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32299 using more than one embedding method
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32304 Embedding different sets of additional information
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3252 Image capture parameters, e.g. resolution, illumination conditions, orientation of the image capture device H04N2201/3256 and subgroups take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3253 Position information, e.g. geographical position at time of capture, GPS data

Abstract

Digital watermarking technology is used in conjunction with compressed video captured from aerial, unmanned apparatus, such as satellites and aircraft. One implementation includes a method of capturing video depicting at least a portion of the earth'"'"'s surface, the video captured by an aerial, unmanned apparatus; compressing the captured video; and hiding a first digital watermark in the compressed captured video through alterations to data representing the compressed video. The first digital watermark is generally imperceptible to a human observer of the video. And the digital watermark has a plural-bit payload including at least geographical metadata associated with the captured video. Other implementations are also provided.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

capturing video depicting at least a portion of the earth'"'"'s surface, the video captured by an aerial, unmanned apparatus;

compressing the captured video;

obtaining geographical metadata associated with at least the captured video; and

hiding a first digital watermark in the compressed captured video through alterations to data representing the compressed video,

wherein the first digital watermark is generally imperceptible to a human observer of the video, and

wherein the digital watermark comprises a plural-bit payload including at least some of the geographical metadata associated with the captured video.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the geographical metadata comprises at least a camera viewing angle.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the geographical metadata comprises at least camera sensor attributes.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the geographical metadata comprises at least an acquisition date and time.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the geographical metadata comprises at least an identifier associated with the aerial, unmanned apparatus.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the geographical metadata comprises at least a geo-referenced position.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the geo-reference position is conveyed in terms of at least latitude and longitude.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein the geo-referenced position corresponds to at least some of the portion of the earth'"'"'s surface depicted in the video.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising inserting a second digital watermark into the video, the second digital watermark comprising a plural-bit payload that includes data representing a refinement to the geographical metadata.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the geographical metadata comprises a first geolocation and a second geolocation, wherein the first geolocation and the second geolocation respectively correspond to first and second locations depicted in the video.

2. The method of claim 2 further comprising wirelessly communicating the compressed, watermarked captured video.

12. A machine-readable medium comprising executable instructions stored thereon, said instructions comprising instructions to:

receive video depicting at least a portion of the earth'"'"'s surface, the video captured by an aerial, unmanned apparatus;

compress the received video;

receive geographical metadata associated with the received video;

hide a first digital watermark in the compressed received video by introducing alterations to data representing the compressed video,

wherein the first digital watermark is hidden to be generally imperceptible to a human observer of the video; and

wherein the digital watermark comprises a plural-bit payload including at least some of the geographical metadata associated with the captured video.

13. The machine-readable medium of claim 12 further comprising instructions to hide a second digital watermark in the received, compressed video, the second digital watermark comprising a plural-bit payload that includes data representing a refinement to the at least some geographical metadata.

14. The machine-readable medium of claim 12 wherein the geographical metadata comprises a first geolocation and a second geolocation, wherein the first geolocation and the second geolocation respectively correspond to first and second locations depicted in the video.

15. The machine-readable medium of claim 12 wherein the geographical metadata comprises at least a geo-referenced position.

16. The machine-readable medium of claim 15 wherein the geo-reference position is conveyed in terms of at least latitude and longitude.

17. The machine-readable medium of claim 15 wherein the geo-referenced position corresponds to at least some of the portion of the earth'"'"'s surface depicted in the video.

18. The machine-readable medium of claim 12 wherein the medium comprises electronic memory storage.

19. A method comprising:

capturing video depicting at least a portion of the earth'"'"'s surface, the video captured by an aerial, unmanned apparatus;

compressing the captured video;

hiding first digital watermarking in the compressed captured video through alterations to data representing the compressed video,

wherein the first digital watermarking is generally imperceptible to a human observer of the video, and

wherein the first digital watermarking comprises at least a first plural-bit payload including at least first geographical metadata associated with the captured video;

hiding second digital watermarking in the compressed captured video through alterations to data representing the compressed video,

wherein the second digital watermarking is generally imperceptible to a human observer of the video, and

wherein the second digital watermarking comprises at least a second plural-bit payload including at least second, different geographical metadata associated with the captured video.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein at least the first geographical metadata or the second, different geographical metadata comprises at least one item of metadata from a group comprising:

camera viewing angle;

camera sensor attributes;

an acquisition date and time;

an identifier associated with the aerial, unmanned apparatus; and

a geo-referenced position.

21. The method of claim 19 wherein the first geographical metadata comprises a first geo-reference position conveyed in terms of at least latitude and longitude and the second, different geographical metadata comprises a second geo-reference position conveyed in terms of at least latitude and longitude.

22. The method of claim 21 wherein the first geo-referenced position corresponds to at least a first portion of the earth'"'"'s surface depicted in the video and the second geo-referenced position corresponds to at least a second, different portion of the earth'"'"'s surface depicted in the video.

23. A machine-readable medium comprising instructions stored thereon to carry out the method of claim 19.