Patent · US Expired

Method and apparatus for compression compatible video scrambling

US6590979B1 · kind B1 · utility

43Cited by
3References
29Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventor

Key dates

Filing dateOct 23, 1998
Grant dateJul 8, 2003
Priority date
Expiry dateOct 23, 2018

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04N7/1675
  • WIPO fieldAudio-visual technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

Scrambling and descrambling techniques are described which, unlike many typical scrambling systems, are compatible with all conceivable forms of signal compression systems. The scrambling technique is based on the principle of applying local spatial distortion to the pixels in a video image, and the like, to locally displace the pixels from their normal locations. Most compression systems rely on the condition that good correlation exists in the image and that any small portion, i.e., pixel, in an image is very similar to the portions, or pixels, nearby. Since the present technique provides local spatial distortion which does not de-correlate the image and does not re-arrange the pixels in the image, the pixels near other pixels prior to application of the scrambling technique, have the same positional relationship after scrambling. The complementary descrambling technique restores the locally displaced pixels to their normal locations to restore the video image to its original unscrambled state.

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