Computer system linked by using information in data objects

Abstract

Various improvements to steganographic systems, and applications therefore, are disclosed. The improvements include facilitating scale and rotation registration for steganographic decoding by use of rotationally symmetric steganographically embedded patterns and subliminal digital graticules; improved techniques for decoding without access to unencoded originals; improving robustness of steganographic coding in motion pictures and/or in the presence of lossy compression/decompression; and representing data by patterned bit cells whose energy in the spatial domain facilitates decoding registration. Applications include enhanced-security financial transactions, counterfeit resistant identification cards, fraud deterrent systems for cellular telephony, covert modem channels in video transmissions, photo duplication kiosks with automatic copyright detection, and hotlinked image objects (e.g. with embedded URLs) for use on the internet.

I claim:  
     
         1 . A method comprising: 
 receiving a plural-bit watermark from a watermark decoder that decoded same from an object;    providing said identifier to a remote database through the internet;    receiving from said database a profile of a proprietor of said object, said profile including proprietor name and contact information.    
     
     
         2 . The method of    claim 1    in which the object is an image.  
     
     
         3 . A computer-readable storage medium having instructions cooperating with an image editing program for performing the following method: 
 receiving a plural-bit watermark from an image watermark decoder associated with the image editing program;    providing said identifier to a remote database through the internet; and    receiving from said database a profile of a proprietor of said image, said profile including the proprietor name and contact information.    
     
     
         4 . The storage medium of    claim 3    in which the medium includes instructions to insert in a drop-down menu associated with said image editing program an option permitting invocation of a read watermark function.  
     
     
         5 . A method comprising: 
 from a first computer, accessing a second computer over the internet to obtain issuance of an ID; and    at the first computer, watermarking an electronic object with said ID;    wherein the second computer serves as a central issuing authority for watermark IDs for plural first computers.    
     
     
         6 . The method of    claim 5    in which the second computer presents to the first computer a form soliciting information, at least some of which must be completed before issuance of the ID.  
     
     
         7 . A method comprising: 
 loading an electronic content object into RAM memory of a computer device, the content object comprising audio or image data; and    detecting a digital watermark embedded in said content as an automatic operation, rather than as a user-initiated operation.    
     
     
         8 . The method of    claim 7    in which the computer device is a personal computer that includes an image editing program.  
     
     
         9 . The method of    claim 7    that further includes alerting a user of said computer device in response to said detection of a watermark.  
     
     
         10 . The method of    claim 7    in which said loading comprises copying at least part of said content object to a virtual clipboard maintained by an operating system of said computer device.