IMAGING SYSTEMS WITH DATA ENCRYPTION AND EMBEDDING CAPABALITIES

• US 20160285626A1
• Filed: 03/24/2015
• Published: 09/29/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/24/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Semiconductor Components Industries LLC (ON Semiconductor Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Semiconductor Components Industries LLC (ON Semiconductor Corporation)
• Inventors: MYERS, Charles G.
• Granted Patent: US 9,871,658 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3247 involving digital signatures
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00 Scanning, transmission or reproduction of documents or the like, e.g. facsimile transmission; Details thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32272 Encryption or ciphering
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/4486 using digital data encryption

Abstract

An imaging system may embed encrypted data into image data. The imaging system may generate image data in response to light received at a pixel array. The imaging system may include encryption circuitry that accesses an encryption key. The encryption circuitry may receive data related to the imaging system and/or to an environment in which an image is captured and encrypt the data using the encryption key. The imaging system may include data embedding circuitry that embeds the encrypted data into the image data to generate an output image. The components of the imaging system may be formed on a single imaging system chip. The encrypted data embedded in the output image may be extracted using an extraction engine and decrypted using a decryption engine and decryption key such that the data may be accessed by a user with access to the decryption key.

Claims

1. An imaging system for encrypting and embedding data into images, the imaging system comprising:

an array of image pixels that generate image data in response to image light;

encryption circuitry that receives additional data that is different than the image data, wherein the encryption circuitry is configured to generate encrypted data by encrypting the additional data using a cryptographic key; and

data embedding circuitry that is configured to embed the encrypted data into the image data to generate an output image.

2. The imaging system defined claim 1, further comprising:

image processing circuitry that processes the image data generated by the array of image pixels, wherein the data embedding circuitry is configured to embed the encrypted data into the processed image data.

3. The imaging system defined in claim 1, wherein the array of image pixels, the encryption circuitry, and the data embedding circuitry are formed on a common integrated circuit.

4. The imaging system defined in claim 3, further comprising:

memory on the common integrated circuit, wherein the cryptographic key is stored on the memory.

5. The imaging system defined in claim 4, wherein the memory comprises one-time programmable memory.

6. The imaging system defined in claim 4, wherein the encryption circuitry is configured to retrieve the cryptographic key from the memory over a communications path formed on the common integrated circuit.

7. The imaging system defined in claim 1, wherein the data embedding circuitry is configured to embed the encrypted data in an image header associated with the output image.

8. The imaging system defined in claim 1, wherein the data embedding circuitry is configured to embed the encrypted data in an image watermark in the output image.

9. The imaging system defined in claim 8, wherein the data embedding circuitry is configured to replace at least some of the image data generated by the array of image pixels with the encrypted data in the output image.

10. The imaging system defined in claim 1, wherein the data embedding circuitry is configured to embed the encrypted data in an image checksum in the output image.

11. The imaging system defined in claim 1, wherein the data embedding circuitry is configured to embed the encrypted data in an image timestamp in the output image.

12. A method of generating images that include encrypted data, the method comprising:

with an imager on an image sensor integrated circuit, capturing image data in response to light received at the imager;

with an encryption engine on the image sensor integrated circuit, receiving image metadata;

with the encryption engine, obtaining an encryption key stored on the image sensor integrated circuit; and

with the encryption engine, encrypting the image metadata using the encryption engine and the encryption key to generate encrypted metadata.

13. The method defined in claim 12, further comprising:

with a data embedder on the image sensor integrated circuit, embedding the encrypted metadata into the image data; and

with the data embedder, outputting a final image that includes the image data and the encrypted metadata embedded therein.

14. The method defined in claim 12, wherein receiving the image metadata comprises obtaining data stored in a memory unit on the image sensor integrated circuit.

15. The method defined in claim 14, wherein the image metadata comprises information identifying the image sensor integrated circuit as a source of the image data.

16. The method defined in claim 12, wherein receiving the image metadata comprises obtaining data stored external to the image sensor integrated circuit through a communications path.

17. The method defined in claim 16, wherein the image metadata comprises information indicative of an environment in which the image data was captured.

18. A system, comprising:

a central processing unit;

memory;

input-output circuitry;

an imaging device, wherein the imaging device comprises;

an image sensor chip;

an array of image sensor pixels formed on the image sensor chip;

image formatting circuitry formed on the image sensor chip;

data encryption hardware formed on the image sensor chip;

memory formed on the image sensor chip, wherein an encryption key is stored on the memory; and

data embedding hardware formed on the image sensor chip.

19. The system defined in claim 18, wherein the array of image sensor pixels generates image pixel data in response to received light, and wherein the image formatting circuitry processes the image pixel data to generate formatted image data.

20. The system defined in claim 19, wherein the data encryption hardware receives data associated with the image pixel data, wherein the data encryption hardware encrypts the data using the encryption key to generate encrypted data, and wherein the data embedding hardware embeds the encrypted data into the formatted image data to generate an image.