Watermark encoded video, and related methods

A method of encoding substantially imperceptible auxiliary information into a video signal including at least one video object, the method comprising:

• steganographically encoding object information about the video object into the video signal;
• and
• associating the object information with an action, where the action is performed in response to user selection of the video object through a user interface while the video signal is playing, wherein the object information is encoded in a watermark signal that covers a portion of a screen area of frames in the video signal where the video object is located.

A method of encoding substantially imperceptible auxiliary information into a video signal including at least one video object, the method comprising:

• steganographically encoding object information about the video object into the video signal;
• and
• associating the object information with an action, where the action is performed in response to user selection of the video object through a user interface while the video signal is playing, wherein object information for at least two different video objects in the video signal is steganographically encoded in different portions of frames of the video signals where the corresponding video objects are located.

A method of encoding substantially imperceptible auxiliary information into a video signal including at least one video object, the method comprising:

• steganographically encoding object information about the video object into the video signal;
• and
• associating the object information with an action, where the action is performed in response to user selection of the video object through a user interface while the video signal is playing, wherein the object information includes screen location information indicating where the video object is located in the video signal.

A method of encoding substantially imperceptible auxiliary information into a video signal including at least one video object, the method comprising:

• steganographically encoding object information about the video object into the video signal;
• and
• associating the object information with an action, where the action is performed in response to user selection of the video object through a user interface while the video signal is playing, wherein the object information is encoded in a pre-recorded video object, which forms part of the video signal.

A method of encoding substantially imperceptible auxiliary information into a video signal including at least one video object, the method comprising:

• steganographically encoding object information about the video object into the video signal;
• and
• associating the object information with an action, where the action is performed in response to user selection of the video object through a user interface while the video signal is playing, wherein the video object is encoded with the object information as part of a process of capturing the video signal of physical objects, and the object information pertains to the physical objects captured in the video signal.

A method of encoding substantially imperceptible auxiliary information into a video signal including at least one video object, the method comprising:

• steganographically encoding object information about the video object into the video signal;
• and
• associating the object information with an action, where the action is performed in response to user selection of the video object through a user interface while the video signal is playing, wherein object information is encoded for at least two different video objects such that the object information is synchronized with corresponding video objects depicted in the video signal during playback.

A method for encoding substantially imperceptible auxiliary information into an audio track of a video signal including at least one video object, the method comprising:

• steganographically encoding object specific information about the video object into the audio track;
• and
• associating the object specific information with an action, where the action is performed in response to user selection of the video object through a user interface while the video signal is playing.

A method of processing video content comprising:

• receiving video content, said video content including picture element data and non-picture element data;
• reading certain of said non-picture element data;
• checking information steganographically embedded in the picture data that is related to said read data, for expected correspondence.

In a consumer electronic apparatus that processes video, the video comprising picture data, an improvement comprising a processor for detecting information steganographically embed in said picture data of the video, and for checking said detected information for expeced correspondence with associated informative conveyed with said video but not representing visual information.