The disclosure relates to digital watermarking, steganography, and specifically to message coding protocols used in conjunction with digital watermarking and steganographic encoding/decoding and payload interpretation methods. One claim recites a method for interpreting a data structure having fixed and variable message portions, the method comprising: processing the fixed message portion to determine a version of the variable message portion; decoding the entire payload field of the variable message portion according to the determined version; and interpreting only a portion of the decoded payload field according to the determined version. Of course, other features and claims are provided too.

The disclosure relates to digital watermarking, steganography, and specifically to message coding protocols used in conjunction with digital watermarking and steganographic encoding/decoding and payload interpretation methods. One claim recites a method for interpreting a data structure having fixed and variable message portions, the method comprising: processing the fixed message portion to determine a version of the variable message portion; decoding the entire payload field of the variable message portion according to the determined version; and interpreting only a portion of the decoded payload field according to the determined version. Of course, other features and claims are provided too.

The disclosed embodiments provide a method for tamper-evident shipment or storage of goods. An Electrical Shield pattern is embedded in or printed on a substrate with other electrical, optical, and electronic components, communication components, semiconductors, which are attached or printed on a substrate to form a shipment bag used as a shipping container. The shield pattern can be made variable between different bags by using algorithms entered into a printer control system. The shipment bag with its components can then be assigned a unique signature which differentiates each bag. Application of encryption methods serves to guarantee the shipped goods are authentic and that were not tampered with during shipment. Digital signal processing is used to generate pedigree information, which may include items such as shipping location, serial numbers, sensor information, and lot numbers for the goods. The information related to the history of tampering attempts and other sensor status can be placed in encrypted form in an RFID tags or control or monitoring electronics which can be read by a mobile phone application or sent to a remote cloud-based server.

In one embodiment, a system including a tangible token comprising a single integrated transparent gemstone produced by fusing together a first transparent gemstone and a second transparent gemstone, a first internal side of the first transparent gemstone is etched with information pertaining to a blockchain, and the information comprises at least a private key, a public key, and an address, the first internal side of the first transparent gemstone is aligned with a second internal side of the second transparent gemstone, and the aligning encapsulates the information within a perimeter of the second internal side such that the information does not extend beyond the perimeter. The system includes a computing device that executes instructions to: read the information, validate, via a network and the address, the public key and private key are associated with the blockchain, and present an indication of whether or not the information is validated.

Systems and methods for enabling user authentication using a first computing device (e.g., a tablet computer) for providing user credentials including an obfuscated password to an application server for authenticating the user credentials and a second computing device different from the first computing device (e.g., a mobile phone) for generating the obfuscated password are described. In some cases, the first computing device may request a login page for accessing a protected resource (e.g., an electronic file) from the application server, which may generate a user specific grid for the login page and send the login page including the user specific grid to the first computing device. The user specific grid may include a plurality of symbols (e.g., alphanumeric characters) associated with a password. The second computing device may generate the obfuscated password using the plurality of symbols entered by a user of the second computing device.

Software on an image-capturing device iteratively captures a visual code in a series of visual codes displayed in a repeating progression on a screen of a mobile device. The visual code was generated from a display block that resulted from a partition of an original data file into a series of display blocks of at least a specified size. The software converts the visual code back into a display block and reads a header for the display block, discarding the display block if it has already been captured, as determined by the ordered identifying block number in a header. The software stops the iterative capturing when all of the display blocks in the series have been captured, as determined by the count in the header and coalesces the captured display blocks into the original data file, using an order determined by the ordered identifying block numbers.

Software on an image-capturing device iteratively captures a visual code in a series of visual codes displayed in a repeating progression on a screen of a mobile device. The visual code was generated from a display block that resulted from a partition of an original data file into a series of display blocks of at least a specified size. The software converts the visual code back into a display block and reads a header for the display block, discarding the display block if it has already been captured, as determined by the ordered identifying block number in a header. The software stops the iterative capturing when all of the display blocks in the series have been captured, as determined by the count in the header and coalesces the captured display blocks into the original data file, using an order determined by the ordered identifying block numbers.

Methods and systems according to the present disclosure improve upon known biometric security systems by not permanently storing (e.g., for later comparison as in known systems) the actual image of the biometric characteristic. Instead, an image of a biometric identifier (e.g., retina, fingerprint, etc.) may be used to form a key which may be used to secure and provide access to data. The key may be formed, in embodiments, using a neural network and/or a random input (e.g., a vector of random characters), for example. The image of the biometric identifier may be discarded, and thus may not be vulnerable to theft. In an embodiment, the key may be used in a key-based encryption system.

Methods and systems according to the present disclosure improve upon known biometric security systems by not permanently storing (e.g., for later comparison as in known systems) the actual image of the biometric characteristic. Instead, an image of a biometric identifier (e.g., retina, fingerprint, etc.) may be used to form a key which may be used to secure and provide access to data. The key may be formed, in embodiments, using a neural network and/or a random input (e.g., a vector of random characters), for example. The image of the biometric identifier may be discarded, and thus may not be vulnerable to theft. In an embodiment, the key may be used in a key-based encryption system.

The invention relates to a computer system (10) and to a method for authenticating a user device (Bm) associated with a user during the process of logging into a server (20), wherein the user device (Bm) belongs to a user device group (B1-Bn) known to the server (20) and has both a user ID (IDBm) and a password (PBm), which are known to the server (20). The method comprises the following steps: a) the server (20) generates input requests (Et1-Etx), each of which is valid only during a defined time period, and displays said input requests (Et1-Etx) individually in succession in a login screen (31), b) the user device (Bm) reads in the input request (Et2) displayed at the time of the login and calculates a response (ABm) by using said input request (Et2), the password (PBm) of the user device, and the current time (t2), c) the user device (Bm) transmits the calculated response (ABm) to the login screen (31), d) the response (ABm) is transmitted by the login screen (31) to the server (20), e) at least for part of the user device group (B1-Bn), the server (20) calculates a response (AS1-ASn) in each case by using the input request (Et2) displayed at the time of the login, the particular password (PB1-PBn), and the current time (t2) and compares the responses (AS1-ASn) calculated by the server with the response (ABm) transmitted by the user device (Bm), and f) the server (20) confirms the authentication for that user device (Bm) for which the response (ASm) calculated by the server (20) matches the response (ABm) transmitted by the user device (Bm).