Apparatus and method for embedding/unembedding supplemental information

• US 6,192,138 B1
• Filed: 05/07/1998
• Issued: 02/20/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 05/08/1997
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Yamadaji, Shinji
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee, Thomas D.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Chen, Wenpeng
• Application Number:
  US09/073,985
• Time in Patent Office: 1,020 Days
• Field of Search: 382/235, 382/200, 382/232, 382/212, 382/115, 382/306, 380/54, 380/24, 380/55, 380/200, 380/202, 283/113
• US Class Current: 382/100
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/0035 Output size adaptive watermarking
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2201/0052 Embedding of the watermark in the frequency domain
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2201/0053 Embedding of the watermark in the coding stream, possibly without decoding; Embedding of the watermark in the compressed domain
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2201/0061 Embedding of the watermark in each block of the image, e.g. segmented watermarking
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32165 using cosine transforms
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32187 with selective or adaptive application of the additional information, e.g. in selected frequency coefficients
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32192 according to calculated or estimated visibility of the additional information in the image
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32277 Compression
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/60 using transform coding
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2005/91335 the copy protection signal being a watermark
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23892 involving embedding information at multiplex stream level, e.g. embedding a watermark at packet level
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8358 involving watermark protecting executable software by watermarking G06F21/16; image watermarking in general G06T1/0021; watermarks inserted in still images for transmission purposes H04N1/32144; inserting watermarks during video coding H04N19/467
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/0081 Image reader H04N2201/0091 - H04N2201/0094 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3233 of authentication information, e.g. digital signature, watermark
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/327 which are undetectable to the naked eye, e.g. embedded codes
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/328 Processing of the additional information
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/913 for scrambling ; for copy protection
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/08 Systems for the simultaneous or sequential transmission of more than one television signal, e.g. additional information signals, the signals occupying wholly or partially the same frequency band , e.g. by time division H04N7/007 takes precedence

Abstract

A supplemental information embedding apparatus having a device for capturing image data, a first memory for storing image data indicating the presence of copyright protection, a first encoder for encoding the image data obtained by the image capturing means to a first format digital image data by n stages of processing (n is a positive integer greater than or equal to 2), a second memory for storing the first format digital image data produced in the digital image data producing means, a second encoder for encoding the image data indicating the copyright data supplied from the image capturing device or the first memory to a second format digital watermark by i stages of processing (i is a positive integer less than n), a third memory for storing the second format digital watermark encoded by the second encoder, a decoder for decoding the first format digital image data stored in the second memory up to a desirable stage of decoding, a divider for dividing the second format digital watermark stored in the third memory into predetermined format blocks, an embedder for dispersively embedding the blocks of the digital watermark into the image data encoded up to i stage by the first encoder or the irate data decoded up to i stage by the decoder, a third encoder for encoding the image data obtained by the embedder by exerting operations on and after j stage (j=n−1) of encoding so as to produce the first format digital image data, and a fourth memory for storing the first format digital image data encoded by the third encoder.

Claims

1. A supplemental information embedding apparatus, comprising:

a device for capturing a first image data;

a first memory for storing a second image data indicating the presence of copyright protection;

a first encoder for encoding the first image data obtained by the image capturing device to a first format digital image data by n stages of processing (n is a positive integer greater than or equal to

     2);

a second memory for storing the first format digital image data produced in the first encoder;

a second encoder for encoding the image data indicating a copyright data supplied from the image capturing device or the first memory to a second format digital watermark by i stages of processing (i is a positive integer less than n);

a third memory for storing the second format digital watermark encoded by the second encoder;

a decoder for decoding the first format digital image data stored in the second memory up to a prescribed stage of decoding;

a divider for dividing the second format digital watermark stored in the third memory into predetermined format blocks;

an embedder for dispersively embedding the blocks of the digital watermark into the image data encoded up to i stage by the decoder;

a third encoder for encoding the image data obtained by the embedder by exerting operations on or after j stage (=n−

1) of encoding so as to produce the first format digital image data; and

a fourth memory for storing the first format digital image data encoded by the third encoder.

2. A supplemental information embedding method, comprising:

receiving an image data from an image capturing device;

carrying out a first encoding operation for producing digital image data in a first format by n stages of processing (n is a positive integer greater than or equal to

     2) for the image data captured by the image capturing device;

carrying out a second encoding operation for producing digital watermark in a second format by i stages of processing (i is a positive integer less than n) for a second image data indicating a presence of copyright Protection supplied from the image capturing device or a first memory storing a digital image data indicating the presence of copyright protection;

decoding the first format digital image data stored in a second memory up to a prescribed stage;

dividing the second format digital watermark stored in a digital watermark memory into predetermined format blocks;

dispersively embedding the blocks of the digital watermark into the image data encoded up to i stage by the first encoding operation or the image data decoded up to i stage by the decoding operation;

carrying out a third encoding operation on or after j stages of processing (j=n−

i) to the image data obtained in the embedding of the digital watermark so as to reproduce the second format digital image data; and

storing the first format digital image data encoded in the third stage encoding operation in a memory.

3. An image processing method as claimed in the claim 2, further comprising:

receiving another image data from the image capturing device;

encoding the other image data to the second format data so as to produce the digital watermark indicating the presence of copyright protection; and

storing the digital watermark into the digital watermark memory.

4. An image processing method as claimed in claim 2, further comprising:

reading out the digital image data indicating the presence of copyright protection from the first memory;

encoding the digital image data to the second format so as to produce the digital watermark indicating the presence of copyright protection; and

storing the digital watermark into the digital watermark memory.

5. An image processing method as claimed in claim 2, further comprising:

receiving another image data from the image capturing device;

carrying out encoding operations up to i stage (i is a positive integer less than n), to the other image data captured by the image capturing device;

dividing the second format digital watermark stored in the digital watermark memory into a specific format data;

dispersively embedding the blocks of the digital watermark into the image data encoded up to i stage;

carrying out the encoding operations on or after j stage (j=n−

1) to the data embedded with digital watermark so as to reproduce the first format digital image; and

storing the first format image data into a third memory.

6. An image processing method as claimed in claim 2, further comprising:

reading out the first format encoded image data stored in the second memory;

carrying out decoding operations up to i stage for the image data read out from the second memory;

dividing the second format digital watermark stored in the digital watermark memory into blocks;

dispersively embedding the blocks of the digital watermark so as to produce a specific format image data;

carrying out encoding operations on or after j stage (j=n−

1) to specific format image data embedded with digital watermark so as to reproduce the first format digital image data; and

storing the first format digital image data into the third memory.

7. A supplemental information embedding apparatus, comprising:

an orthogonal transformer for orthogonal transforming divided blocks of image data;

a quantizer for quantizing the divided blocks of image data after the orthogonal transform; and

an embedder for embedding supplemental information in place of at least a part of a zero-run section immediately preceding an EOB (End of Block) in each of the quantized blocks of image data.

10. A supplemental information embedding apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 7 to 9, further comprising:

a reversible compressor for reversible compressing the blocks of image data embedded with the supplemental information.

8. A supplemental information embedding apparatus, comprising:

an orthogonal transformer for orthogonal transforming divided blocks of image data;

a quantizer for quantizing the divided blocks of image data after the orthogonal transform; and

an embedder for embedding supplemental information in place of the head of a zero-run section immediately preceding an EOB (End of Block) in each of the quantized blocks of image data.

9. A supplemental information embedding apparatus, comprising:

an orthogonal transformer for orthogonal transforming divided blocks of image data;

a quantizer for quantizing the divided blocks of image data after the orthogonal transform; and

a divider for dividing supplemental information corresponding to one frame of the image data into a plurality of blocks; and

an embedder for dispersively embedding the divided blocks of supplemental information into the image data in place of the head of a zero run section immediately preceding an EOB (End of Blocks) of the quantized blocks of image data.

11. An image decoder for decoding image compression data wherein supplemental information is embedded in place of at least a part of zero-run section immediately preceding an EOB (End of Block), which is obtained by dividing image data, orthogonal transforming the divided blocks of image data and quantizing the orthogonal transformed blocks of image data, comprising:

an unbedder for unbedding the supplemental information from the image compression data;

a memory for storing the unbedded supplemental information;

a replacer for replacing the supplemental information embedded in the image compression data with a zero-run;

a reverse quantizer for reverse quantizing the zero-replaced image compression data; and

a reverse orthogonal transformer for reverse orthogonal transforming the reverse quantized image compression data.

12. An image decoder for decoding reversible compressed image data wherein supplemental information is embedded in place of at least a part of a zero-run section immediately preceding an EOB (End of Block) obtained by dividing image data, orthogonal transforming the divided blocks of image data and quantizing the orthogonal transformed blocks of image data, comprising:

a reversible decoder for reversible decoding the image compression data;

an unbedder for unbedding the supplemental information from the reversible decoded image compression data;

a memory for storing the unbedded supplemental information;

a replacer for replacing the supplemental information embedded in the image compression data with a zero-run;

a reverse quantizer for reverse quantizing the zero-replaced image compression data; and

a reverse orthogonal transformer for reverse orthogonal transforming the reverse quantized image compression data.

13. An image encoding method comprising:

orthogonal transforming divided blocks of image data;

quantizing the divided blocks of image data after the orthogonal transforming operation; and

embedding supplemental information into at least a part of a zero-run section immediately preceding an EOB (End of Block) in each of the quantized blocks.

14. An image encoding method comprising:

orthogonal transforming divided blocks of image data;

quantizing the divided blocks of image data after the orthogonal transforming operation; and

embedding supplemental information in place of the head of a zero-run section immediately preceding an EOB (End of Block) in each of the quantized block.

15. An image encoding method comprising:

orthogonal transforming divided blocks of image data;

quantizing the divided blocks of image data after the orthogonal transforming operation;

dividing supplemental information corresponding to one frame of image data into a plurality of blocks; and

dispersively embedding the divided blocks of supplemental information into the image data in place of the head of a zero-run section immediately preceding an EOB (End of Blocks) of the quantized blocks of image data.

16. A method for decoding image data wherein supplemental information is embedded in place of at least a part of a zero-run section immediately preceding an EOB (End of Block), which is obtained by dividing image data, orthogonal transforming the divided blocks of image data and quantizing the orthogonal transformed blocks of image data, comprising:

unbedding the supplemental information from the image compression data;

storing the unbedded supplemental information;

replacing the supplemental information embedded in the image compression data with a zero-run;

reverse quantizing the zero-replaced image compression data; and

reverse orthogonal transforming the reverse quantized image compression data.

17. A method for decoding reversibly compressed image data wherein supplemental information is embedded in place of at least a part of the zero run section of immediately preceding an EOB (End of Block), which is obtained by dividing image data, orthogonal transforming the divided blocks of image data and quantizing the orthogonal transformed blocks of image data, comprising:

reversible decoding the image compression data;

unbedding the supplemental information from the reversible decoded image compression data;

storing the unbedded supplemental information;

replacing the supplemental information embedded in the image compression data with a zero-run;

reverse quantizing the zero-replaced image compression data; and

reverse orthogonal transforming the reverse quantized image compression data.

18. A supplemental information embedding apparatus, comprising:

means for capturing a first image data;

first storing means for storing a second image data indicating the presence of copyright protection;

first encoding means for encoding the first image data obtained by the image capturing means to a first format digital image data by n stages of processing (n is a positive integer greater than or equal to

     2);

second storing means for storing the first format digital image data produced in the first encoding means;

second encoding means for encoding the image data indicating a copyright data supplied from the image capturing means or the first storing means to a second format digital watermark by i stages of processing (i is a positive integer less than n);

third storing means for storing the encoded second format digital watermark encoded by the second encoding means;

means for decoding the first format digital image data stored in the second storing means up to a prescribed stage of decoding;

means for dividing the second format digital watermark stored in the third storing means into predetermined format blocks;

means for dispersively embedding the blocks of the digital watermark into the image data encoded up to i stage by the first encoding means or the image data decoded up to i stage by the decoding means;

third encoding means for encoding the image data obtained by the digital watermark embedding means by exerting operations on or after j stage (j=n−

1) of encoding so as to produce the first format digital image data; and

means for storing the first format digital image data encoded by the third encoding means.

19. A supplemental information embedding apparatus, comprising:

means for orthogonal transforming divided blocks of image data;

means for quantizing the divided blocks of image data after the orthogonal transforming operation; and

means for embedding supplemental information in place of at least a part of a zero-run section immediately preceding an EOB (End of Block) in each of the quantized blocks of image data.

22. A supplemental information embedding apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 19 to 21, further comprising:

means for reversible compressing the blocks of image data embedded with the supplemental information.

20. A supplemental information embedding apparatus, comprising:

means for orthogonal transforming divided blocks of image data;

means for quantizing the divided blocks of image data after the orthogonal transforming operation; and

means for embedding supplemental information in place of the head of a zero-run section immediately preceding an EOB (End of Block) in each of the quantized blocks of image data.

21. A supplemental information embedding apparatus, comprising:

means for orthogonal transforming divided blocks of image data;

means for quantizing the divided blocks of image data after the orthogonal transforming operation;

means for dividing supplemental information corresponding to one frame of the image data into a plurality of blocks; and

means for dispersively embedding the divided blocks of supplemental information into the image data in place of the head of a zero-run section immediately preceding an EOB (End of Blocks) of the quantized blocks of image data.

23. An image decoder for decoding image compression data wherein supplemental information is embedded in place of at least a part of zero-run section immediately preceding an EOB (End of Block), which is obtained by dividing image data, orthogonal transforming the divided blocks of image data and quantizing the orthogonal transformed blocks of image data, comprising:

means for unbedding the supplemental information from the image compression data;

means for storing the unbedded supplemental information;

means for replacing the supplemental information embedded in the image compression data with a zero-run;

means for reverse quantizing the zero replaced image compression data; and

means for reverse orthogonal transforming the reverse quantized image compression data.

24. An image decoder for decoding reversible compressed image data wherein supplemental information is embedded in place of at least a part of a zero-run section immediately preceding an EOB (End of Block) obtained by dividing image data, orthogonal transforming the divided blocks of image data and quantizing the orthogonal transformed blocks of image data, comprising:

means for reversible decoding the image compression data;

means for unbedding the supplemental information from the reversible decoded image compression data;

means for storing the unbedded supplemental information;

means for replacing the supplemental information embedded in the image compression data with a zero-run;

means for reverse quantizing the zero replaced image compression data; and

means for reverse orthogonal transforming the reverse quantized image compression data.