Authentication Methods and Systems Including Embedded Auxiliary Data

• US 20070170248A1
• Filed: 12/19/2006
• Published: 07/26/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 02/12/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Digimarc Corporation
• Original Assignee: Digimarc Corporation
• Inventors: Brundage, Trent, Hannigan, Brett
• Granted Patent: US 7,806,322 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 235/380
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/16 the marking being a hologram or diffraction grating
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 2209/41 with means for the generation of identity documents
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/257 electronically G07C9/26 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/08 by coded identity card or credit card or other personal identification means without personal verification means G07F7/02
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/12 Card verification

Abstract

The present invention generally relates to steganography and digital watermarking. An authentication method is provided in one embodiment. The method includes receiving an object including a host object and auxiliary data steganographically embedded within the host object; determining geometric characteristics of the host object relative to expected geometric characteristics of the host object; and detecting the auxiliary data from the host object. The method can further include re-aligning or correcting geometric characteristics of the object based on a result of the act of determining prior to the act of detecting. Other embodiments, method and apparatus and described as well.

Claims

1. An authentication method comprising:

receiving optical scan data representing at least a portion of an identification document, the portion of the identification document comprising a first region including a photographic representation of an authorized bearer of the identification document;

comparing geometric characteristics of the first region from the data representing the portion to predetermined geometric characteristics of the first region;

based at least in part on a result of said act of comparing, adjusting a detection process; and

detecting steganographic encoding with the adjusted detection process to obtain information steganographically encoded in the photographic representation of the authorized bearer of the identification document.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the act of adjusting the detection process includes adjusting geometric characteristics of the optical scan data.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein adjusting the geometric characteristics of the optical scan data comprises re-aligning the first region to approximate the predetermined geometric characteristics.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the information is steganographically encoded with digital watermarking.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the information comprises a reduced-bit representation corresponding to the photographic representation.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the predetermined geometric characteristics comprise at least scale and rotation.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the predetermined geometric characteristics correspond to a rectangle.

8. A machine-readable medium comprising instructions to perform the method of claim 1.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the optical scan data is obtained through visible light scanning.

10. An authentication method comprising:

receiving an object comprising a host object and auxiliary data steganographically embedded within the host object;

determining geometric characteristics of the host object relative to expected geometric characteristics of the host object; and

detecting the auxiliary data from the host object.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising re-aligning or correcting geometric characteristics of the object based on a result of said act of determining prior to said act of detecting.

12. The method of claim 10 wherein the host object comprising a representation of an identification document photographic.

13. The method of claim 10 wherein the auxiliary data is steganographically embedded within the host object with digital watermarking.

14. The method of claim 10 wherein the host object represents a photograph and the auxiliary data includes a reduced-bit representation of the photograph.

15. A machine-readable medium comprising instructions to perform the method of claim 10.

16. A method comprising:

receiving data representing an identification document photograph and auxiliary data steganographically hidden within the identification document photograph;

determining geometric characteristics of the identification document photograph relative to expected geometric characteristics of the identification document photograph; and

detecting the auxiliary data from the identification document photograph based at least in part on a result from said act of determining.

17. The method of claim 16 further comprising re-aligning or correcting geometric characteristics of the identification document photograph based at least in part on the result prior to said act of detecting.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the auxiliary data is steganographically hidden within the identification document photograph with digital watermarking.

19. The method of claim 16 wherein the auxiliary data comprises a reduced-bit representation corresponding to the identification document photograph.

20. The method of claim 16 wherein the expected geometric characteristics are represented in terms of at least scale and rotation.

21. The method of claim 16 wherein the expected geometric characteristics correspond to a rectangle.

22. A machine-readable medium comprising instructions to perform the method of claim 16.