Digital watermarking systems
AssigneeDigimarc Corporation
InventorsNeil Lofgren, Phillip Andrew Seder, Brian T. Maclntosh
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A variety of systems responsive to watermarked documents are detailed. In one, watermarking is employed to facilitate secure online transactions. In another, a system for exchanging data is provided. One system includes a user terminal and a central site. The user terminal includes a watermark reader, and a capture device to capture an image of a watermarked document. The central site includes a database of image hashes. The user terminal communicates with the central site. The watermark reader reads a watermark and computes a hash of a captured image, and passes the hash to the central site for comparison with the database of image hashes.
Claims27
A method of commerce over the internet between a user computer and a merchant computer, the user computer reading a document including an embedded watermark, said method comprising the steps of:
- at the user computer, extracting identifying data from the watermark, and passing the identifying data to a central computer;
- at the central computer, identifying a financial institution identifier associated with the document and passing the identifier and a session ticket to the user computer;
- contacting the financial institution via the financial institution identifier and passing to the financial institution the session ticket to obtain an authentication ticket;
- passing the authentication ticket from the user to the merchant computer to facilitate a transaction;
- and
- providing the authentication ticket from the merchant computer to the financial institution.
A method of verifying data comprising the steps of:
- digitally capturing an image;
- computing a first hash of the captured image;
- and
- comparing the first hash with a database of hashes, the database of hashes comprising hashes corresponding to previously captured images.
A system for exchanging data comprising:
- a user terminal comprising a watermark reader, and a capturing device to capture an image of a watermarked document;
- and
- a central site comprising a database of image hashes, wherein said user terminal communicates with said central site, and wherein said reader reads a watermark and computes a hash of a captured image and passes the hash to said central site for comparison with said database of image hashes.
A method of commerce over a communications system between a user and a merchant, the system including a central computer, a user computer, a merchant computer and a financial institution computer, the user computer comprising a reader, the computers communicating via a network, said method comprising the steps of:
- accessing the merchant computer from the user computer;
- launching on the user computer the reader to read a document comprising embedded data, the reader extracting identifying data from the embedded data;
- accessing the central computer from the user computer to obtain a URL for the financial institution computer and a ticket, the URL being identified from the extracted identifying data;
- passing the ticket from the user computer to the financial institution computer to obtain an authorization;
- after receipt of the authorization, passing the authorization from the user computer to the merchant computer;
- and
- passing the authorization from the merchant computer to the financial institution computer.
A method of gaining permissions comprising the steps of:
- launching on a first computer a reader to read a document comprising embedded data, the reader extracting identifying data from the embedded data;
- accessing the central computer from the first computer to obtain a URL for a permission granting computer and a ticket, the URL identified from the extracted identifying data;
- passing the ticket from the first computer to the permission granting computer to obtain a permission;
- and
- upon receipt of the permission, passing the permission from the first computer to a computer requesting the permission.
A method of preventing online attacks, comprising the steps of:
- capturing an encoded image;
- extracting data from the encoded image;
- computing a hash of the captured image;
- and
- comparing the hash against previously determined hashes.
A computer readable medium having a data structure stored thereon, said data structure comprising:
- a document identifier;
- a document type identifier;
- and
- a hash of an image from which the document identifier and document type identifier were extracted from.
A method of gaining permissions comprising the steps of:
- launching on a first computer a reader to read a document comprising identifying data;
- accessing a central computer to obtain a location of a permission computer and a ticket, the location identified from the identifying data;
- passing the ticket to the permission computer to obtain a permission;
- and
- upon receipt of the permission, passing the permission to a computer requesting the permission.
A method of verifying data comprising the steps of:
- verifying physical possession of an identifying document;
- and
- comparing provided verification data with predetermined verification data.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.