Patent · US Expired

Protecting images with an image watermark

US5825892A · kind A · utility

472Cited by
7References
28Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateOct 28, 1996
Grant dateOct 20, 1998
Priority date
Expiry dateOct 28, 2016

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04N2201/327
  • WIPO fieldAudio-visual technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A robust means of watermarking a digitized image with a highly random sequence of pixel brightness multipliers is presented. The random sequence is formed from `robust-watermarking-parameters` selected and known only by the marker and/or the marking entity. A watermarking plane is generated which has an element array with one-to-one element correspondence to the pixels of the digitized image being marked. Each element of the watermarking plane is assigned a random value dependent upon a robust random sequence and a specified brightness modulation strength. The so generated watermarking plane is imparted onto the digitized image by multiplying the brightness value or values of each pixel by its corresponding element value in the watermarking plane. The resulting modified brightness values impart the random and relatively invisible watermark onto the digitized image. Brightness alteration is the essence of watermark imparting. Detection of an imparted watermark requires knowing the watermarking plane with which the watermark was imparted. Regeneration of the watermarking plane requires knowledge of the robust-marking-parameters used in its formulation. This is generally only known to…

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.