International Business Machines Corporation

Other

Frederick Cole Mintzer

Gordon Wesley Braudaway

Karen L Anderson

Joan LaVerne Mitchell

Ravishankar Rao

Chai Wah Wu

Charles Philippe Tresser

Minerva Ming-Yee Yeung

Don Coppersmith

Gerald Goertzel

Jonathan Lenchner

Jeffrey Owen Kephart

Steven Lorenz Wright

Shui-Chih Alan Lien

Gerhard Robert Thompson

Ephraim Feig

William B Pennebaker

Keith S Pennington

James Edward Christensen

Marco Martens

Jennifer Quirin Trelewicz

Michael James Cordes

Donald M DeCain

Samuel Monk Weber

James Bergheim Shearer

Karen A Magerlein

Albert Nessim Cazes

Michael Wilbur Munger

Yi-Hsin Chen

The invention is a novel watermark in a media sequence and systems and methods for embedding and detecting the watermark. Different watermarks from a watermark set of pseudo random watermarks are selected (randomly or by a selection pattern) and each selected watermark is embedded in a different selected I-frame set of the media stream. Identifying the known sequence of watermarks in the stream of I-frames of a copy can identify the video stream from which the copy originates.

Digitally watermarked compressed video image sequences

Disclosed is a system and method for optimizing submission of output jobs to a network of output devices, using an output job manager to assign jobs to devices. The assignments are done automatically, based on policies associated with users, output devices, organizations responsible for the output devices, and the system as a whole. User output preferences are expressed as one or more user policies. System and organizational constraints associated with users and output devices and the managing of groups of output devices are also expressed as policies. An optimizing scheduler calculates tradeoffs between user preferences, and factors in constraints to optimize submission of jobs to output devices, and to optimize use and wait times on the output devices.

Policy based system and method for optimizing output device submission, use and wait times

The present invention provides methods and apparatus for embedding an identifying pattern of visible speckles into the digitized image of each page of a document. A speckle is a cluster of black or white pixels. Speckles are printed as black speckles on the white paper, or conversely, as areas of missing black removed from the black text characters, called white speckles. The collective pattern of all embedded black and white speckles on a single document page is called a specklemark. A specklemark can survive contrast manipulations on photocopiers and binary rasterization done by fax scanning prior to data transmission. The random pattern of the black and white speckles visible in the digitized image of a document page can be detected automatically, and by systematically matching the detected pattern with those known to have been embedded into marked copies of a document page, a specific document copy can be identified. Methods for composing, embedding and detecting specklemarks are the subject of this patent.

Marking images of text with speckle patterns for theft deterrence

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 the marker and/or marking entity. Once regenerated the watermarking plane is used together with a verifying image located in a 'visualizer' to demonstrate the existence of the watermark.

Protecting images with an image watermark

The present invention provides an image watermarking technique whereby a watermark is inserted into an adjusted digital source image that is bounded by a specific bounding rectangle. If the source image is larger than the rectangle, its dimensions are reduced by a common factor until it is the largest adjusted image that lies totally within the rectangle. A watermark is inserted into the adjusted image and at least one derived image of larger or smaller size is produced. Then, regardless of the size of an image derived from the watermarked adjusted image, enlarging or reducing that image to again lie within the rectangle greatly facilitates detection of the imbedded watermark. The size of the bounding rectangle may be specific to each source image, or, conversely, a common bounding rectangle may be used for a group of source images.

Inserting and detecting watermarks in images derived from a source image

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 having an element array with one-to-one element positional correspondence with 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 modulation 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 the marker and/or marking entity. Once regenerated, the watermarking plane is used together with a verifying image located in a 'visualizer' to demonstrate the existence of the watermark. The process of watermark detection is enhanced by application of a blurring filter to the marked image before detection is attempted.

A watermarking scheme is provided that allows the watermarked image to be authenticated by an authentication agent without revealing the human-readable content of the image. There is disclosed an approach that combines privacy control with watermarking and authentication mechanisms. The watermark can be made to be imperceptible to humans. Public key cryptography allows the authentication agent to authenticate without being able to watermark an image. Watermark information may also be encoded in a vector graphics image that includes at least one stroke defined by coordinate values of an ordered sequence of points. This may be obtained by providing watermark information as a bit sequence, identifying one or more redundant properties of the image, modifying the redundant properties based upon the bit sequence to generate a representation of the image and storing the representation of the image for subsequent use.

Secured signal modification and verification with privacy control

The present invention provides methods and apparatus for imparting a multiplicity of watermarks onto a digitized image. The image includes a plurality of pixels, wherein each of the pixels includes brightness data that represents one brightness value if the image is monochrome, or a plurality of brightness data values if the image has multiple colors. In one aspect it provides for imparting more than one watermark into the digitized image comprising the steps of providing the digitized image, and multiplying the brightness data associated with at least one of the image pixels by a plurality of predetermined brightness multiplying value. Another aspect of the present invention is to provide a method for generating a composite watermark and imparting on a plurality of copies of a digitized image a different composite watermark into each copy. Also provided is a method for detecting one or more of the watermarks in the composite.

Protecting images with multiple image watermarks

This invention provides methods, apparatus and article of manufacture used as a countermeasure to image distorting. The present invention involves automatically detecting the presence of distortion in a presumed distorted image, measuring the magnitude and type of distortion, and finally creating a realigned image. Once image distortion is removed, conventional invisible watermark extraction methods are employed to extract the watermark from the realigned image. The automatic method does not depend on a process of visually examining a composite image and recording the coordinates of pixel locations closest to common image features in a distorted image and reference image. Generally, the presumed distorted image is resized to the same size as the reference image. Reference centers at at least three distinct points that do not form a straight line are selected. At each reference center, a sub-image is excised. Pairs of sub-images, one excised from the reference image and the other excised from the distorted image, having the same reference center are used in the process of removal of the distortion.

Composing a realigned image

A digital watermarking method encodes different pairs of watermarks into each of a plurality of images offered for use by a vendor. The watermarks in each pair are derived from two separate collections of watermarks and sufficiently different so as to prevent false positives. Because each pair of watermarks is assigned to a different customer relative to a particular image, unauthorized use of a digital image sold to a customer may be determined by locating the associated pair of watermarks assigned to the customer in the image. Collusion detection is also realized by forming each pair of masks from sub-collections of masks which are detectable in an image formed by combining the same images sold to one or more customers.

Watermarks for customer identification

A method, system and computer article are presented for smoothing an image calibration signal in order to smooth a reproduced signal, and to identify the presence of any remaining spikes or other significant deviations. The invention recognizes the problems with raw calibration signals, and posits that the calibration signals be filtered by methods and systems described. For example, calibration data may be smoothed by fitting the calibration data to a parametric model employing either linear or non-linear least squares. Alternate techniques implement smoothing using optimal filtering. An aspect of the invention is a method, computer product or article of manufacture for improving an initial calibration profile having an initial profile extent to form an improved calibration profile. The initial profile may be formed for a scanner employing a linear array CCD and having a particular direction of motion. One method includes forming an extended profile extent in the direction of motion using quadratic extrapolation, applying multirate filtering to the extended profile to form a filtered profile, and truncating the filtered profile to bring it to the initial profile extent to form the improved calibration profile.

Smoothing calibration files to improve reproduction of digitized images

The present invention provides methods and apparatus for the color calibration of displays. These methods are particularly useful for displays having properties different than those associated with cathode ray tubes (CRT). Some displays, for example liquid crystal displays (LCD), have a high luminance black, the chromas of their primaries are not independent of their luminance levels, the intensities of their primaries are not strictly monotonically increasing with respect to their RGB levels, the color additivity of their subpixels is affected by crosstalk or leakage and their color measurements are dependent on the view angle of the observer. Therefore, the usage of CRT methods is deficient for such displays. The methods and apparatus of the present invention overcome several deficiencies generally found in non-CRT display devices by employing techniques associated with the use of restricted ranges for the primaries, subtracting the color black from all color measurements, forming a modified display matrix and/or creating tables which correct errors due to the non-linearities or color leakages of these display devices. These enable images to be processed using algorithms of different complexity and precision.

Color calibration of displays

A method, computer program product, and a program storage device readable by machine, for repurposing images includes classifying the pixels of a binary image as being either halftone image pixels or non-halftone image pixels, further processing the halftoned image pixels with halftone image pixel processing and combining the outputs of the halftone image pixel processing and non-halftone image pixel processing to prepare the images for a second purpose such as a second printer. The processing that classifies the binary pixels as being either halftone image pixels or non-halftone image pixels segments the image into regions of halftone image pixels and regions of non-halftone image pixels. The processing of regions of halftone image pixels first constructs an intermediate gray scale representation of the regions of halftone image pixels. The processing to construct the gray scale representation of the region of halftone image pixels estimates the primary periodicity of the values of the binary pixels within the region of halftone image pixels. The intermediate gray scale image is rehalftoned and combined with the non-halftone image to form the repurposed image.

Method and apparatus for repurposing binary images

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 &prime;robust- watermarking-parameters&prime; 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 the marker and/or marking entity. Once regenerated the watermarking plane is used together with a verifying image located in a &prime;visualizer&prime; to demonstrate the existence of the watermark.

Growing community of inventors

Shrub Oak, NY, United States of America

Frederick Cole Mintzer