Abstract: Emulsion media (e.g., photographic film or paper) is pre-processed to impart a steganographic pattern to the emulsion. The pattern is manifested when the media is exposed and developed by a user, and can serve device-control or other data-conveying purposes.

Abstract: A number of novel watermarking applications, and improvements to watermarking methods, are disclosed. Included are techniques for encoding printed circuit boards and street signs with watermarks, deterring credit card fraud and controlling software licensing using watermarks, registering collectibles via watermarks, encoding the margins of printed pages with watermarks, and using watermarks to convey extra information in video by which fidelity of the rendered video may be improved.

Abstract: The disclosure describes a method of segmenting a media signal for parallel watermarking operations. The method sub-divides the media signal into segments, distributes the segments to parallel processors, and performs parallel digital watermark operations on the segments in the parallel processors. These parallel processors may comprise separate threads of execution on a processing unit, or several execution threads distributed to several processing units. In one enhancement, the method prioritizes the segments for watermarking operations. This enables finite processing resources to be allocated to segments in order of their priority. Further, processing resources are devoted to segments where the digital watermark is more likely to be imperceptible and/or readable. The disclosure also describes a system for distributed watermark embedding operations including a watermark signal generator, a perceptual analyzer and a watermark applicator.

Abstract: Watermarks in video signals or the accompanying audio track are used to associate video objects in a video sequence with object specific actions or information. A video object refers to a spatial and temporal portion of a video signal that depicts a recognizable object, such as a character, prop, graphic, etc. Each frame of a video signal may have one or more video objects. The auxiliary information is embedded in video or audio signals using “steganographic” methods, such as digital watermarks. By encoding object specific information into video or an accompanying audio track, the watermarks transform video objects into “watermark enabled” video objects that provide information, actions or links to additional information or actions during playback of a video or audiovisual program. A similar concept may be applied to audio objects, i.e. portions of audio that are attributable to a particular speaker, character, instrument, artist, etc.