Securely Authenticating a Recording File from Initial Collection Through Post-Production and Distribution

Abstract

The technology disclosed relates to data captured in streams from sensors. Streams often are edited, especially video and audio data streams. In particular, the technology disclosed facilitates identification of segments of an originally captured stream that find their way into a finally edited stream and identification of changed segments in the finally edited stream. Summary analysis on self-aligned meta-blocks of stream data is described, along with pushing at least some self-aligned meta-hashes into a blockchain network, applying an alignment and hashing procedure described in a smart contract.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method of securely authenticating a file that comprises data, the method including:
 determining block-level hashes for the data;   determining self-aligned meta-hashes for the data by
 applying a function to the block-level hashes to identify meta-block boundaries, 
 defining meta-blocks using consecutive meta-block boundaries, and 
 group hashing the block-level hashes of the meta-blocks to produce the self-aligned meta-hashes; 
   repeating for edited data produced from the data
 the determining of the block-level hashes and 
 the determining of the self-aligned meta-hashes; and 
   comparing the self-aligned meta-hashes for the data and the edited data to securely authenticate the edited data.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further including using a Merkle tree to determine a root hash for the self-aligned meta-hashes. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , further including storing only a root hash for the self-aligned meta-hashes on a blockchain network. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3 , further including:
 using a root hash determined for the self-aligned meta-hashes and stored on the blockchain network to retrieve at least some self-aligned meta-hashes associated with the root hash from a distributed storage; and   using the associated self-aligned meta-hashes to securely authenticate the edited data as excerpted from the data.   
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 3 , further including:
 using a root hash for the self-aligned meta-hashes and stored on the blockchain network to retrieve at least some self-aligned meta-hashes associated with the root hash from a distributed storage; and   using the at least some self-aligned meta-hashes associated with the root hash to retrieve the file from the distributed storage and securely authenticate the file.   
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 3 , further including committing the root hash to the blockchain network in accordance with a smart contract that:
 accumulates in a storage block on the blockchain network the root hash as a first version;   makes the first version available for retrieval and data origin validation of the data and appends the validation to the first version for storage in the storage block;   accumulates in the storage block the root hash for the edited data as a second version; and   makes the second version available for retrieval and data origin validation of the edited data and appends the validation to the second version for storage in the storage block.   
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 3 , further including storing at least some of the block-level hashes or at least some of the self-aligned meta-hashes on the blockchain network. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , further including:
 applying a modulo function to the block-level hashes to determine remainders of the block-level hashes; and   using the remainders to identify the meta-block boundaries.   
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the comparing further includes aligning the self-aligned meta-hashes for the data and the edited data to securely authenticate the edited data. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the file comprises one or more data streams and at least one data stream is a video stream, the block-level hashes are frame-level hashes, the meta-block boundaries are meta-frame boundaries, the meta-blocks are meta-frames, and the block streams are frame streams. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the file comprises one or more data streams and at least one data stream is an audio stream, the block-level hashes are segment-level hashes, the meta-block boundaries are meta-segment boundaries, the meta-blocks are meta-segments, and the block streams are segment streams. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the file comprises one or more data streams and at least one data stream is a subtitle stream, the block-level hashes are sample-level hashes, the meta-block boundaries are meta-sample boundaries, the meta-blocks are meta-samples, and the block streams are sample streams. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12 , further including repurposing the subtitle stream for recording a custom data format that includes at least one of location measurements and bio response measurements. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the file comprises one or more data streams including at least one selected from a video stream, an audio stream, and a subtitle stream that are interleaved, further including generating the self-aligned meta-hashes for each of the video stream, the audio stream, and the subtitle stream for secure authentication. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein an edited data stream is produced from the data stream after post-production editing that includes at least one of prepending blocks to the data stream, postpending blocks to the data stream, trimming blocks from the data stream, and inserting blocks into the data stream. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15 , further including using matches between the self-aligned meta-hashes for the data stream and the edited data stream to show from where in the data stream block streams in the edited data stream were excerpted. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 15 , further including committing at least some of the self-aligned meta-hashes to a blockchain network in accordance with a smart contract that:
 accumulates in a storage block on the blockchain network the self-aligned meta-hashes for the data stream as a first version;   makes the first version available for retrieval and data origin validation of the data stream and appends the validation to the first version for storage in the storage block;   accumulates in the storage block the self-aligned meta-hashes for the edited data stream as a second version; and   makes the second version available for retrieval and data origin validation of the edited data stream and appends the validation to the second version for storage in the storage block.   
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 15 , further including retaining in a storage block an edit function list of functions that transformed blocks of the data stream. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 18 , further including creating a rendered data stream by applying the edit function list to blocks of the edited data stream and linking the rendered data stream back to the edited data stream and the edit function list. 
     
     
         20 . A method of securely authenticating a data stream, the method including:
 determining block-level hashes for the data stream;   determining self-aligned meta-hashes for the data stream by
 applying a function to the block-level hashes to identify meta-block boundaries, 
 defining meta-blocks using consecutive meta-block boundaries, and 
 group hashing the block-level hashes of the meta-blocks to produce the self-aligned meta-hashes; 
   repeating for an edited data stream produced from the data stream
 the determining of the block-level hashes and 
 the determining of the self-aligned meta-hashes; and 
   comparing the self-aligned meta-hashes for the data stream and the edited data stream to securely authenticate the edited data stream.