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US 8,014,559 B2Granted
Information embedding apparatus, information embedding method, information extracting apparatus, information extracting method, computer program product
AssigneeRicoh Company, Ltd.
InventorMasaki Ishii
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A first-information obtaining unit that obtains first information and a second-information obtaining unit obtains second information. The second information has a higher degree of importance than that of the first information. A generating unit generates watermark image data including a group of first dot patterns including the first information and a group of second dot patterns including the first information and the second information and having a dot size enlarged from a dot size of the first dot patterns. A superposing unit superposes the generated watermark image data on a target image data.
Claims20
An information embedding apparatus comprising:
- an image obtaining unit to obtain image information;
- a first-information obtaining unit to obtain first information to be embedded in the image information obtained by the image obtaining unit;
- a second-information obtaining unit to obtain second information to be embedded in the image information obtained by the image obtaining unit, the second information having a higher degree of importance than that of the first information;
- a generating unit to generate watermark image information including a group of first image patterns and a group of second image patterns, each of which is arranged at each of a plurality of embedding areas, wherein each of the second image patterns is obtained by replacing dots corresponding to one of the first image patterns with dots having an enlarged size, the first image patterns and the second image patterns respectively represent one bit or a plurality of bits that constitute(s) the first information, and sets of the second image patterns respectively represent one bit or a plurality of bits that constitute(s) the second information in such a manner that a positional relationship between the second image patterns in each of the sets represents one bit or a plurality of bits;
- and
- a superposing unit to superpose the watermark image information on the image information obtained by the image obtaining unit thereby obtaining watermark-superposed image information, wherein
- the image obtaining unit, the first-information obtaining unit, the second-information obtaining unit, the generating unit, the superposing unit are embodied as a program residing on a non-transitory computer-readable medium.
4 more elements
An information extracting apparatus comprising:
- an image obtaining unit to obtain watermark-superposed image information that is image information having superposed thereon watermark image information formed of a group of first image patterns and a group of second image patterns, each of which is arranged at each of a plurality of embedding areas, wherein each of the second image patterns is obtained by replacing dots corresponding to one of the first image patterns with dots having an enlarged size, the first image patterns and the second image patterns respectively represent one bit or a plurality of bits that constitute(s) first information, and sets of the second image patterns respectively represent one bit or a plurality of bits that constitute(s) second information in such manner that a positional relationship between the second image patterns in each of the sets represents one bit or a plurality of bits;
- a first-information extracting unit to extract the first information embedded in the watermark-superposed image information based on the group of the first image patterns and the group of the second image patterns identified from the watermark-superposed image information;
- and
- a second-information extracting unit to extract second information embedded in the watermark-superposed image information based on the positional relationships between the second image patterns identified from the watermark-superposed image information, wherein
- the image obtaining unit, the first-information extracting unit, the second-information extracting unit are embodied as a program residing on a non-transitory computer-readable medium.
2 more elements
A method of embedding information comprising:
- obtaining image information;
- obtaining first information to be embedded in obtained image information;
- obtaining second information to be embedded in the obtained image information, the second information having a higher degree of importance than that of the first information;
- generating watermark image information including a group of first image patterns and a group of second image patterns, each of which is arranged at each of a plurality of embedding areas, wherein each of the second image patterns is obtained by replacing dots corresponding to one of the first image patterns with dots having an enlarged size, the first image patterns and the second image patterns respectively represent one bit or a plurality of bits that constitute(s) the first information, and sets of the second image patterns respectively represent one bit or a plurality of bits that constitute(s) the second information in such a manner that a positional relationship between the second image patterns in each of the sets represents one bit or a plurality of bits;
- and
- superposing the watermark image information on the obtained image information thereby obtaining watermark-superposed image information.
3 more elements
A method of extracting information comprising:
- obtaining watermark-superposed image information that is image information having superposed thereon watermark image information formed of a group of first image patterns and a group of second image patterns, each of which is arranged at each of a plurality of embedding areas, wherein each of the second image patterns is obtained by replacing dots constituting corresponding one of the first image patterns with dots having an enlarged size, the first image patterns and the second image patterns respectively represent one bit or a plurality of bits that constitute(s) first information, and sets of the second image patterns respectively represent one bit or a plurality of bits that constitute(s) second information in such a manner that a positional relationship between the second image patterns in each of the sets represents one bit or a plurality of bits;
- extracting the first information embedded in the watermark-superposed image information based on the group of the first image patterns and the group of the second image patterns identified from the watermark-superposed image information;
- and
- extracting second information embedded in the watermark-superposed image information based on the positional relationships between the second image patterns identified from the watermark-superposed image information.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.