New pending patent applications are published by the USPTO on Thursdays. Both of today's Spotlight Applications concern aspects of digital watermarking. Assigned to Teletrax (NL), the first application discloses techniques for the distribution of a content item and monitoring the distribution using watermarking. Assigned to Thomson (FR), the second application discloses techniques for watermarking an audio signal.
20160316279, "Distribution of a content item and monitoring the distribution using watermarking," assigned to Teletrax, B.V. (NL)
Abstract
A method of and system for distributing a content item, having a plurality of segments. A composite content item is created by concatenating segments from different content items from different agencies. A segment of the composite content item may or may not already comprise a previously embedded segment watermark carrying a previously embedded segment payload. The method comprises determining if the segment already comprises a previously embedded segment watermark, and if so, logging the previously embedded segment payload in a watermark transaction log associated with the new segment payload; otherwise, embedding the new segment payload as a watermark in the segment. In the case that the segment already comprises a previously embedded segment payload, the previously embedded payload is logged in a watermark transaction log, and the previously embedded segment payload is replaced with a new segment watermark that represents the new segment payload. A method and system for monitoring the distribution of a content item using a transaction log.20160314795, "Method and apparatus for watermarking an audio signal," assigned to Thomson (FR).
Abstract
Improvement of water-mark detection in watermarked microphone audio signals picked up in the presence of surrounding noise is achieved by using at encoder side not only the originally received signal for the calculation of the masking threshold and the watermarking strength, but by also taking into account the level of the surrounding noise. This enables an adaptation of the watermarking strength to the current sound pressure level SPL of the surrounding noise. If the SPL of the surrounding noise is increased, the watermarking strength will be increased accordingly. The resulting advantage is a significantly improved audio watermark detection in the presence of surrounding noise.
