The US Patent Office issues new patents on Tuesdays. Issued patents and published applications may be early indicators of the kinds of issues being addressed by inventors and/or the companies for whom they work. Assigned to Eastman Kodak, the first of today's issuances deals with encoding information in a watermark. Assigned to Microsoft, the second patent deals with playlist processing.
6,940,993, "System and method for embedding a watermark signal that contains message data in a digital image," assigned to Eastman Kodak.
Abstract
A method for embedding a watermark signal that contains message data in a digital image represented as a two-dimensional array of pixel values, includes the steps of: providing a dispersed message image having pixel values representative of the message data; modifying each pixel value of the dispersed message image as a function of the corresponding pixel value in the digital image; and combining the modified dispersed message image with the digital image to produce a watermarked image.
6,941,324, "Methods and systems for processing playlists," assigned to Microsoft.
Abstract
Various systems and methods described above permit a user's content experience (e.g. music playing experience) to be monitored and for metadata describing this experience to be collected. This metadata can be dynamically updated as a user experiences media content and then used to impart to the user a personalized experience that is tailored to that specific user. A user's metadata can, in some instances, provided across a wide variety of computing devices on which the user may experience the media content, thus standardizing the user's personalized media experience. In addition, intelligent or "smart" playlists can be provided which, in some instances, can be dynamically and automatically updated to reflect current user experiences, thus providing a highly personalized and enjoyable content experience.
