Abstract: The disclosure describes methods and apparatus of providing steganographic indicia or digital watermarking in image or video data. One implementation provides a method of embedding a digital watermark in image data captured by an imager, with watermark embedding occurring on-chip with the imager. Another implementation provides a method of managing images. Each of the images comprises plural-bit data steganographically embedded therein in the form of a digital watermark, with the plural-bit data corresponding to a geo-location. Yet another implementation provides a method of identifying locations on a map, with the map being for display via a computer display. Still another implementation provides a method of introducing a watermark message to a watermark embedder located on-chip with an image array. Other implementations and embodiments are provided as well.

Abstract: The disclosure describes methods and apparatus for providing digital watermarks in image data. One implementation embeds digital watermarks on-chip with respect to a CMOS or CCD image array. Some implementations introduce a watermark component during image capture, the watermark being introduced through variations in physical characteristics of a set of pixels. Other implementations involve managing images through geo-location information embedded therein. The disclosure also describes methods and apparatus for identifying travel points through digital watermarked images. For example, an image includes location information steganographically embedded therein. The location information is used to identify or provide a map corresponding to the location information. A location on the map that is associated with the location information is visually marked with an object. In some implementations the object is the image or a thumbnail version of the image.