US 8,345,569 B2 · Multiple watermarks for fidelity assessment

Abstract

A system and method of perceptual quality assessment for multimedia content in a communications network employing digital watermarking. A content preparer prepares content for quality assessment by embedding digital watermarks into the multimedia data, each watermark having a different level of robustness with respect to a specified type of potential degradation introduced during content transmission. A quality assessor provides an assessment of the quality of the transmitted content by attempting to detect the presence of at least one watermark, and calculating a quality assessment score based on the level(s) of robustness of the detected watermark(s) with respect to the specified type of potential degradation. The quality assessment score can be calculated based on the level of robustness of the least robust watermark whose presence was successfully detected by the quality assessor. The quality assessor generates an output indication of the transmitted content fidelity using any suitable type of output indication.

Claims26

Dependent claims

A method of assessing the perceptual quality of multimedia content provided over a communications channel, comprising the steps of:

incorporating a plurality of digital watermarks in the multimedia content;
transmitting the multimedia content including the plurality of digital watermarks over the communications channel, the plurality of digital watermarks having different levels of robustness with respect to a specified type of degradation in the perceptual quality of the multimedia content introducible during multimedia content transmission;
in a detecting step, detecting at least one of the plurality of digital watermarks in the multimedia content, wherein the detecting step is performed starting with a least robust digital watermark among the plurality of digital watermarks, and, in the event the least robust digital watermark is not detected, continuing with at least one next least robust digital watermark among the plurality of digital watermarks until the at least one of the plurality of digital watermarks is detected;
and
in response to having detected the at least one of the plurality of digital watermarks in the multimedia content, generating an output indicative of at least the perceptual quality of the multimedia content based at least in part on the respective level of robustness of the at least one detected digital watermark.

2 more elements

A system for assessing the perceptual quality of multimedia content provided over a communications channel, comprising:

a multimedia content preparer including at least one digital watermark embedder, the at least one digital watermark embedder being operative to incorporate a plurality of digital watermarks in the multimedia content, the plurality of digital watermarks having different levels of robustness with respect to a specified type of degradation in the perceptual quality of the multimedia content introducible during multimedia content transmission;
and
a multimedia content quality assessor including at least one digital watermark detector and a multimedia quality assessment module, the at least one digital watermark detector being operative to detect at least one of the plurality of digital watermarks in the multimedia content, starting with a least robust digital watermark among the plurality of digital watermarks, and, in the event the least robust digital watermark is not detected, continuing with at least one next least robust digital watermark among the plurality of digital watermarks until the at least one of the plurality of digital watermarks is detected, and the multimedia quality assessment module being operative, in response to the at least one digital watermark detector having detected the at least one of the plurality of digital watermarks in the multimedia content, to generate an output indicative of at least the perceptual quality of the multimedia content based at least in part on the respective level of robustness of the at least one detected digital watermark.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Multiple watermarks for fidelity assessment

Life of this patent

Multiple watermarks for fidelity assessment

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims26