Audio appliance and monitoring device responsive to watermark data

• US 6,654,480 B2
• Filed: 03/25/2002
• Issued: 11/25/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 11/18/1993
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Digimarc Corporation
• Original Assignee: Digimarc Corporation
• Inventors: Rhoads, Geoffrey B.
• Primary Examiner(s): Johns, Andrew W.
• Application Number:
  US10/108,256
• Publication Number:
  US 20020164050A1
• Time in Patent Office: 610 Days
• Field of Search: 382/100, 382/232, 380/31, 380/42, 380/252, 380/287, 704/200.1, 704/270, 704/273, 370/522, 370/523, 370/527, 370/528, 370/529, 381/73.1
• 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

A consumer audio device decodes auxiliary control data that is hidden in audio information. The auxiliary control information can be used to trigger some response in the device, such as enabling or disabling certain operations.

Claims

1. An audio appliance comprising:

a memory including a key; and

a recognition device responsive to a control signal steganographically embedded in audio information to limit use of the appliance, the control signal taking the form of a low level noise-like signal that has been summed with the audio information, the noise signal encoding the control signal, the control signal being repeated throughout the audio information and being represented differently in the audio information according to the key.

2. An audio appliance comprising:

a memory including a key; and

a recognition device responsive to a control signal steganographically embedded in audio information to limit use of the appliance, the control signal being detected by a correlation detector in the recognition device, the correlation detector receiving as one input a noise-like reference signal, the control signal being repeated throughout the audio information and being represented differently in the audio information according to the key.

3. The appliance of claim 2 in which the correlation detector receives as a second input a high-pass filtered version of the audio information.

4. The appliance of claim 2 in which the correlation detector performs a dot product operation between two sets of data, a first of said sets being said noise-like reference signal, the second of said sets corresponding to the audio information.

5. An audio monitoring device comprising:

a memory including data for steganographically decoding a control signal from audio information; and

a recognition device in communication with the memory and responsive to the control signal steganographically embedded in audio information, the control signal taking the form of an auxiliary signal derived in part from the audio information that has been summed with the audio information, the recognition device being operable to measure statistical characteristics of corresponding segments of audio samples of the audio information, and being operable to estimate from the measure of the statistical characteristic for each segment an embedded symbol corresponding to the measure of the statistical characteristic for the segment.

6. The audio monitoring device of claim 5 wherein the statistical characteristic is computed for delayed segments of the audio information.

7. The audio monitoring device of claim 5 wherein the segments of audio samples comprise time domain samples of the audio information.

8. The audio monitoring device of claim 5 wherein the statistical characteristic comprises entropy of the audio segment.

9. The audio monitoring device of claim 5 wherein the statistical characteristic comprises time averaged power of the audio segment.

10. A method for using a steganographic control signal to limit use of an audio appliance, the method comprising:

receiving audio information in the appliance; and

decoding a control signal steganographically embedded in the audio information to limit use of the appliance, the control signal taking the form of a low level noise-like signal that has been summed with the audio information, the noise signal encoding the control signal, the control signal being repeated throughout the audio information and being represented differently in the audio information according to the key.

11. A method for using a steganographic control signal to limit use of an audio appliance, the method comprising:

receiving audio information in the appliance;

decoding a control signal steganographically embedded in the audio information to limit use of the appliance, the control signal being detected by performing correlation on the audio information; and

receiving as one input a noise-like reference signal, the control signal being repeated throughout the audio information and being represented differently in the audio information according to the key.

12. The method of claim 11 in which the correlation is performed on a second input comprising a high-pass filtered version of the audio information.

13. The method of claim 11 in which performing the correlation includes a dot product operation between two sets of data, a first of said sets being said noise-like reference signal, the second of said sets corresponding to the audio information.

14. A method of monitoring audio for a steganographic control signal comprising:

receiving audio information;

decoding a control signal steganographically embedded in the audio information, the control signal taking the form of an auxiliary signal derived in part from the audio information that has been summed with the audio information; and

wherein decoding the control signal includes measuring statistical characteristics of corresponding segments of audio samples of the audio information, estimating from the measure of the statistical characteristic for each segment an embedded symbol corresponding to the measure of the statistical characteristic for the segment.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the statistical characteristic is computed for delayed segments of the audio information.

16. The method of claim 14 wherein the segments of audio samples comprise time domain samples of the audio information.

17. The method of claim 14 wherein the statistical characteristic comprises entropy of the audio segment.

18. The method of claim 14 wherein the statistical characteristic comprises time averaged power of the audio segment.

19. A computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon for performing the method of claim 14.

20. A computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon for performing a method for using a steganographic control signal to limit use of an audio appliance, the method comprising:

receiving audio information in the appliance; and

decoding a control signal steganographically embedded in the audio information to limit use of the appliance, the control signal taking the form of a low level noise-like signal that has been summed with the audio information, the noise signal encoding the control signal, the control signal being repeated throughout the audio information and being represented differently in the audio information according to the key.