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. Both of today's patents deal with watermarking. Assigned to Sony, the first describes a Data processing apparatus, data processing method, data reading apparatus, and recording apparatus. Assigned to Canon, the second describes ways of sending and receiving digital images using an image watermark for decoding.
7,013,078, "Data processing apparatus, data processing method, data reading apparatus, and recording apparatus," assigned to Sony.
Abstract
In a data processing apparatus and method, watermark information embedded in data can be detected even if the data is subjected to various processing. The apparatus includes a processor for processing data, an output unit for outputting the data processed by the processor, a measurement unit for measuring and determining a processing record of the processed data, and a controller for controlling the operation of the processor based on the processing record.
7,013,023, "Method and device for sending and receiving digital images using an image watermark for decoding," assigned to Canon.
Abstract
In order to decode a received digital signal which has been watermarked with a known watermark, at least part of the digital signal is decoded by using a parametrisable iterative decoder, the watermark is extracted from the decoded signal, the extracted watermark is compared with the known watermark, and at least one parameter of the decoder is modified if necessary, according to the result of the comparison.
