# US 2014/0157441 A1 · Methods, apparatus, and articles of manufacture to encode auxilary data into text data and methods, apparatus, and articles of manufacture to obtain encoded data from text data > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 2014/0157441 A1 - Document ID: US20140157441A1 - Status: Published application - Kind: A1 - Application number: 13/691,522 - Filed: 2012-11-30 - Published: 2014-06-05 - Earliest claimed: 2012-11-30 - Assignees: The Nielsen Company (US), LLC - Inventors: Nikolay Georgiev; Leonid Ayzenshtat - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20140157441A1 ## CPC - G06F 21/16: Program or content traceability, e.g. by watermarking - G06F 16/84: Mapping; Conversion - G06F 21/10: Protecting distributed programs or content, e.g. vending or licensing of copyrighted material (protection in video systems or pay television H04N7/16) {; Digital rights management [DRM]} - G09C 5/00: Ciphering apparatus or methods not provided for in the preceding groups, e.g. involving the concealment or deformation of graphic data such as designs, written or printed messages - G06F: ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING (computer systems based on specific computational models G06N) - G09C: CIPHERING OR DECIPHERING APPARATUS FOR CRYPTOGRAPHIC OR OTHER PURPOSES INVOLVING THE NEED FOR SECRECY ## Abstract Methods, apparatus, and articles of manufacture to encode auxiliary data into text data and methods, apparatus, and articles of manufacture to obtain encoded data from text data are disclosed. An example method to embed auxiliary data into text data includes selecting a portion of auxiliary data to be encoded into text data, mapping the portion of auxiliary data to a first set of one or more encoded characters representative of the portion of the auxiliary data, mapping a position of the portion of auxiliary data within the auxiliary data to a second set of one or more encoded characters representative of the portion of the auxiliary data, and generating encoded data by including the first set of encoded characters and the second set of encoded characters in the text data. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A method to encode auxiliary data into text data, comprising: selecting a portion of auxiliary data to be encoded into text data; mapping the portion of auxiliary data to a first set of one or more encoded characters representative of the portion of the auxiliary data; mapping a position of the portion of auxiliary data within the auxiliary data to a second set of one or more encoded characters representative of the portion of the auxiliary data; and generating encoded data by including the first set of encoded characters and the second set of encoded characters in the text data. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the first and second sets of encoded characters represent a substantially identical width. ### Claim 3 (depends on 1) A method as defined in claim 1, wherein including the first set of encoded characters comprises replacing a first white space character of the text data with a second white space character. ### Claim 4 (depends on 3) A method as defined in claim 3, wherein the second white space character is a Unicode white space character. ### Claim 5 (depends on 1) A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the first set of encoded characters comprises a non-zero width white space character and a zero-width white space character. ### Claim 6 (depends on 1) A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the first set of encoded characters comprises a plurality of non-zero width white space characters. ### Claim 7 A method to encode auxiliary data into text data, comprising: determining a number of white space characters in text data to be encoded with auxiliary data; mapping auxiliary data to a first set of multiple encoded characters representative of the auxiliary data based on the number of white space characters; and generating encoded data by including the first set of encoded characters in the text data. ### Claim 8 (depends on 7) A method as defined in claim 7, wherein mapping the portion of the auxiliary data to the first set of encoded characters is based on the number of white space characters in the text data being greater than a threshold. ### Claim 9 (depends on 7) A method as defined in claim 7, wherein including the first set of encoded characters in the text data comprises replacing a white space character of the text data with the first set of encoded characters. ### Claim 10 (depends on 9) A method as defined in claim 9, wherein the first set of encoded characters represent a substantially identical width as a width of the replaced white space character, the widths being defined based on a width presented when the first set of encoded characters and the white space character are decoded and displayed by a processor. ### Claim 11 (depends on 9) A method as defined in claim 9, wherein the first set of encoded characters comprise a plurality of Unicode non-zero width white space characters. ### Claim 12 A method to obtain auxiliary data from text data, comprising: detecting a first symbol, the first symbol including a white space character, present in first text data; mapping the first symbol to first data; detecting a second symbol, the second symbol including a white space character, present in the first text data; mapping the second symbol to a first bit position of the first data in encoded data; and determining the encoded data based on placing the first data in the first bit position. ### Claim 13 (depends on 12) A method as defined in claim 12, wherein the first symbol is at least one of a combination of multiple Unicode non-zero width white space characters, a combination of Unicode characters including a non-zero width white space character and a zero-width white space character, or a combination of Unicode characters including a flow control character. ### Claim 14 (depends on 12) A method as defined in claim 12, further comprising: detecting a third symbol and a fourth symbol present in second text data; mapping the third symbol to second data; mapping the fourth symbol to a second bit position of the second data in the encoded data, wherein the second bit position is different than the first bit position; and determining the encoded data based further on placing the second data in the second bit position. ### Claim 15 (depends on 12) A method as defined in claim 12, wherein the first and second symbols represent a substantially identical width, the width being defined based on a width presented when the first and second symbols are decoded and displayed by a processor. ### Claim 16 An apparatus, comprising: a data character selector to select a portion of auxiliary data to be encoded into text data and to map the portion of auxiliary data to a first set of one or more encoded characters representative of the portion of the auxiliary data; a position character selector to map a position of the portion of auxiliary data within the auxiliary data to a second set of one or more encoded characters representative of the portion of the auxiliary data; and a data unit encoder to generate encoded data by including the first set of encoded characters and the second set of encoded characters in the text data. ### Claim 17 (depends on 16) An apparatus as defined in claim 16, wherein the encoded characters in the first set represent a substantially identical width, the width being defined based on a width presented when the first set of encoded characters and the white space character are decoded and displayed by a processor. ### Claim 18 (depends on 16) An apparatus as defined in claim 16, wherein the first set of encoded characters comprise at least one of a Unicode white space character, a Unicode zero width character, or a Unicode flow control character. ### Claim 19 (depends on 16) An apparatus as defined in claim 16, wherein the first set of encoded characters comprises a plurality of non-zero width white space characters. ### Claim 20 (depends on 16) An apparatus as defined in claim 16, wherein the data unit encoder is to include the first set of encoded characters by replacing a first white space character of the text data with a second white space character. ### Claim at position 21 21-24. (canceled) ### Claim 25 A computer readable storage medium comprising computer readable instructions which, when executed, cause a processor to at least: select a portion of auxiliary data to be encoded into text data; map the portion of auxiliary data to a first set of one or more encoded characters representative of the portion of the auxiliary data; map a position of the portion of auxiliary data within the auxiliary data to a second set of one or more encoded characters representative of the portion of the auxiliary data; and generate encoded data by including the first set of encoded characters and the second set of encoded characters in the text data. ### Claim 26 (depends on 25) A storage medium as defined in claim 25, wherein the first and second sets of encoded characters represent a substantially identical width. ### Claim 27 (depends on 25) A storage medium as defined in claim 25, wherein including the first set of encoded characters comprises replacing a first white space character of the text data with a second white space character. ### Claim 28 (depends on 27) A storage medium as defined in claim 27, wherein the second white space character is a Unicode white space character. ### Claim 29 (depends on 25) A storage medium as defined in claim 25, wherein the first set of encoded characters comprises a non-zero width white space character and a zero-width white space character. ### Claim 30 (depends on 25) A storage medium as defined in claim 25, wherein the first set of encoded characters comprises a plurality of non-zero width white space characters. ### Claim at position 28 31-34. (canceled)