Methods for detecting alteration of audio and images

• US 6,289,108 B1
• Filed: 02/10/2000
• Issued: 09/11/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 11/18/1993
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Digimarc Corporation
• Original Assignee: Digimarc Corporation
• Inventors: Rhoads, Geoffrey B.
• Primary Examiner(s): Johns, Andrew W.
• Application Number:
  US09/502,187
• Time in Patent Office: 579 Days
• Field of Search: 382/100, 382/232, 380/210, 380/287, 380/252, 380/54, 713/176, 704/200.1, 704/273, 381/73.1, 370/527, 370/529, 283/72, 283/74, 283/75, 283/77, 283/93
• US Class Current: 382/100
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/1408 by using cryptography for digital transmission H04L9/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/1235 with control of digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/341 Active cards, i.e. cards including their own processing means, e.g. including an IC or chip
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/40145 Biometric identity checks
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/005 Robust watermarking, e.g. average attack or collusion attack resistant
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/0057 Compression invariant watermarking
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2201/0052 Embedding of the watermark in the frequency domain
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/253 visually
• CPC Class Codes: G07D 7/0032 using holograms
• CPC Class Codes: G07D 7/004 using digital security elements, e.g. information coded on a magnetic thread or strip
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/16 for devices exhibiting advertisements, announcements, pictures or the like
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/26 for printing, stamping, franking, typing or teleprinting apparatus ticket printing or the like apparatus G07F17/42
• 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 7/086 by passive credit-cards adapted therefor, e.g. constructive particularities to avoid counterfeiting, e.g. by inclusion of a physical or chemical security-layer for security documents G07D7/00; for the reading of record-carriers in general G06K7/00; for the design of coded credit-cards G06K19/10
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/1008 Active credit-cards provided with means to personalise their use, e.g. with PIN-introduction/comparison system
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/1016 Devices or methods for securing the PIN and other transaction-data, e.g. by encryption arrangements for secret communication, see H04L9/00
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/12 Card verification
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 19/018 Audio watermarking, i.e. embedding inaudible data in the audio signal
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00007 Time or data compression or expansion audio compression based on psychoacoustics G10L19/00; data processing for reproducing audio data at different playback speeds G10L21/04; video compression H04N19/00; data compression per se H03M7/30
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00086 Circuits for prevention of unauthorised reproduction or copying, e.g. piracy indicating unauthorised use of record carriers in general G11B23/28; scrambling for television signal recording H04N5/913; network architectures or network protocols for network security H04L63/00; cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for secret or secure communication H04L9/00
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00094 : involving measures which result in a restriction to authorised record carriers
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00115 : wherein the record carrier stores a unique medium identifier
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00166 : involving measures which result in a restriction to authorised contents recorded on or reproduced from a record carrier, e.g. music or software
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00181 : using a content identifier, e.g. an international standard recording code [ISRC] or a digital object identifier [DOI]
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/0021 : involving encryption or decryption of contents recorded on or reproduced from a record carrier
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00884 : involving a watermark, i.e. a barely perceptible transformation of the original data which can nevertheless be recognised by an algorithm
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00891 : embedded in audio data
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/10037 : A/D conversion, D/A conversion, sampling, slicing and digital quantisation or adjusting parameters thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/10527 : Audio or video recording; Data buffering arrangements G11B20/12 - G11B20/18 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2020/00014 : the compressed signal being an audio signal
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2020/10546 : specifically adapted for audio data
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2020/10555 : wherein the frequency, the amplitude, or other characteristics of the audio signal is taken into account
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/665 : using psychoacoustic properties of the ear, e.g. masking effect
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00005 : relating to image data
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00037 : Detecting, i.e. determining the occurrence of a predetermined state H04N1/00031 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00079 : remotely
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32144 : embedded in the image data, i.e. enclosed or integrated in the image, e.g. watermark, super-imposed logo or stamp
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32149 : Methods relating to embedding, encoding, decoding, detection or retrieval operations
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32203 : Spatial or amplitude domain methods H04N1/32309 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32208 : involving changing the magnitude of selected pixels, e.g. overlay of information or super-imposition H04N1/32219, H04N1/32224 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32251 : in multilevel data, e.g. greyscale or continuous tone data
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32288 : Multiple embedding, e.g. cocktail embedding, or redundant embedding, e.g. repeating the additional information at a plurality of locations in the image
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2005/91321 : the copy protection signal being a copy protection control signal, e.g. a record inhibit signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2005/91335 : the copy protection signal being a watermark
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2005/91342 : the copy protection signal being an authentication signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2005/9135 : by superimposing the spectrally spread copy protection signal onto the video signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3205 : of identification information, e.g. name or ID code H04N2201/3209 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3207 : of an address
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3226 : of identification information or the like, e.g. ID code, index, title, part of an image, reduced-size image
• 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 2201/3271 : Printing or stamping
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/328 : Processing of the additional information
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/89 : using holographic recording H04N5/91 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/90 : on discs or drums
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/913 : for scrambling ; for copy protection
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8042 : involving data reduction
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8047 : using transform coding
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8205 : involving the multiplexing of an additional signal and the colour video signal
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 283/901 : Concealed data

Abstract

The adage “photos don'"'"'t lie” is no longer reliable. The advent of digital editing tools makes it relatively easy to move, add, or delete features from photographs. Other digital content is similarly susceptible to alteration. This problem is at least partially overcome by providing a photograph with supplemental data. This supplemental data is below a threshold of human perception (e.g., is essentially invisible) yet can extend throughout the image. If a version of the image is thereafter encountered with the supplemental data missing or attenuated, the image is known to have been altered. By reference to such supplemental data, it is often possible to identify particular regions within the image that have been altered.

Claims

1. A method of detecting alteration of a complete data object, the data object comprising image or audio data, the method comprising—

in order;

providing the object with supplemental data, the supplemental data being below a threshold of human perception when represented in the data object;

distributing the data object with the supplemental data;

acquiring a complete suspect data object;

discerning, by reference to any supplemental data in the suspect data object, an alteration of the suspect object.

2. The method of claim 1 in which the data object comprises image data, and the method includes discerning one or more locations within the image at which the image data has been altered.

3. The method of claim 1 in which the data object comprises audio data, and the method includes discerning one or more locations within the audio at which the audio data has been altered.

4. The method of claim 1 which includes providing the object with supplemental data by adding a noise-like signal to the object, said noise-like signal serving to change a majority of data elements comprising the object.

5. The method of claim 4 in which the noise-like signal is tailored in correspondence with a feature of the object so as to better hide the supplemental data in the object.

6. The method of claim 1 in which the alteration is the substitution of new data into said object.

7. The method of claim 1 in which the data object comprises image data.

8. The method of claim 7 in which the discerning includes generating data related to the amplitude of said supplemental data at different locations in said image data.

9. The method of claim 8 that includes generating a spatial map of the amplitude of the supplemental data.

10. A method of determining alteration of an image, characterized by sensing an auxiliary signal at different regions of the image, said auxiliary signal not being apparent to a human observer of the image, and, by reference to the signal so-sensed, identifying at least one region as having been altered.

11. The method of claim 10 that further includes identifying at least one region as having not been altered.

12. The method of claim 10 that includes generating data related to the amplitude of said auxiliary signal at different locations in said image.

13. The method of claim 12 that includes generating a spatial map of the amplitude of the auxiliary signal.

14. The method of claim 10 in which the alteration is the substitution of new data into said image.

15. A method of detecting alteration of a data object, the data object comprising image or audio data, the method comprising—

in order;

providing an original data object with supplemental data, the supplemental data being below a threshold of human perception when represented in the original data object;

distributing the data object with the supplemental data;

acquiring a suspect data object; and

discerning, by reference to any supplemental data in the suspect data object, alteration within the suspect data object as compared to the original object.

16. The method of claim 15 in which the alteration is the substitution of new data into said object.

17. The method of claim 15 in which the data object comprises image data.

18. The method of claim 17 in which the discerning includes generating data related to the amplitude of said supplemental data at different locations in said image data.

19. The method of claim 18 that includes generating a spatial map of the amplitude of the supplemental data.