Verance Corporation

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Aris Technologies, Inc.

Eric Metois

Rade Petrovic

Kanaan Jemili

Joseph M Winograd

Neil Adam Gershenfeld

Bernd Schoner

A system for determining the amount of processing that has been applied to watermarked signal. A steganographic signal is provided that includes an original signal and an embedded fragile watermark. The fragile watermark is characterized by a low energy and a high redundancy in comparison to a robust watermark. The steganographic signal is communicated over a distribution channel to a decoder. At the decoder, a measure of a presence of the fragile watermark in the acquired steganographic signal is provided, along with an estimate of the fragility profile of the fragile watermark for this particular original signal. Based on these factors, a estimate is made of the amount of processing that the steganographic signal has undergone. This processing can include, for example, A/D and D/A conversions, resampling, band-limiting, perceptual compression/decompression, etc. Optionally, the fragility profile is derived prior to the distribution of the content and communicated by the steganographic signal for recovery by the decoder. Furthermore, a robust watermark may be provided in the steganographic signal that, e.g., designates the presence of the fragile watermark to a decoder.

Method and apparatus for detecting processing stages applied to a signal

Apparatus and methods are provided for embedding or embedding digital data into an analog host or cover signal. A distributed signal feature of the cover signal in a particular domain (time, frequency or space) is calculated and compared with a set of predefined quantization values corresponding to an information symbol to be encoded. The amount of change required to modify the signal feature to the determined target quantization value is calculated and the cover signal is modified accordingly to so change the feature value over a predefined interval. Information symbols are extracted by the opposite process.

Apparatus and method for embedding and extracting information in analog signals using distributed signal features

Apparatus and methods are provided for embedding watermark information into a cover signal, such as an audio signal, video signal, or still image signal, in a manner that prevents the watermark information from being removed without degrading the quality of the cover signal. This is accomplished by subjecting the cover signal to a phase modulation prior to being embedded with the watermark information, wherein the amount or degree of phase modulation is changed at least for each different watermark to be embedded in a particular instance or copy of the cover signal. As such, if two copies of the same cover signal, each containing a different watermark, are averaged or combined in an attempt to obliterate the watermark information, the cover signal will be subjected to phase cancellation, rendering any illicit copy of such signal so derived to be valueless.

Method and apparatus for preventing removal of embedded information in

Efficient synthesis of complex, driven systems is accomplished using a probabilistic framework according to which the physics of system behavior are modeled in terms of the effective degrees of freedom relevant to observed behavior, instead of modeling the physical configuration or the output waveform. A replica of the system's behavior in response to external stimulus is developed computationally, and the model used to replace (or facilitate replacement) of the system with, for example, a physical representation programmed to behave in accordance with the model. The invention may be applied to develop a model capturing the behavior of a complex musical instrument such as a violin; the model then may be embodied in any physically appealing format (e.g., as a plastic replica of the original violin that would, absent the implemented model, produce no sound if bowed; or a keyboard or other musical instrument whose response to being 'played' is to generate the sounds of the original violin).

Efficient synthesis of complex, driven systems

Apparatus and methods are provided for encoding, storing and decoding auxiliary information on an analog source signal in a way which has minimal impact on the human perception of the source information when the source signal is applied to an appropriate output device, such as a speaker or a display monitor. The autocorrelation function of a host signal is modulated according to the value of an auxiliary information signal by adding a host modifying signal to the host signal. The auxiliary signal is decoded by generating the autocorrelation function of the encoded signal and extracting the auxiliary signal according to well-known signal extraction techniques.

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Somerville, MA, United States of America

Eric Metois