A method and apparatus for playing back a media content instance is disclosed. The method permits the use of downloadable variants to upgrade or change cryptographic functions performed by the playback device, thus permitting content protection schemes to be renewed.

Abstract: An image processing circuitry configured to: generate, based on obtained image data, a visual content word sequence indicative for a visual content of an image represented by the obtained image data; and generate, based on the generated visual content word sequence, an image signature for the image.

Content conversion verification, includes: converting, at a first computer system, an original content file to a target format, generating a converted content file in the target format; generating a checksum for the converted content file; and sending the original content file and the checksum to a second computer system. Key words include content verification and checksum.

One aspect of the present invention discloses a text watermarking method for hiding user information. The text watermarking method comprises inputting encryption variable set information with which to encrypt a target document, wherein the target document includes text, generating an encrypted block based on the encryption variable set information and embedding the encrypted block into the target document by using an embedding rule of the encrypted block. The encryption variable set information includes a predetermined random key value, a user ID, and information indicating the embedding rule of the encrypted block. The predetermined random key value and the information indicating an embedding rule of the encrypted block are managed in a non-disclosure manner.

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for detecting errors that can occur in third party content presentation and verifying that third party content provided by a content provider to a content platform is actually displayed and is visible to the user when the content platform is accessed on the client device. Methods can include receiving, from an application executing on a client device, a request to generate a digitally signed token that is used to validate whether a particular content item displayed at the particular portion of the display is a third party content item. A digital watermark embedded at the particular portion of the display can be extracted and decoded to obtain data for attributes that are descriptive of the particular content item. A digitally signed token can be generated using this data, and the token can then be provided to application.

In one aspect, an example method includes (i) encountering, by a media player of a media presentation system, a trigger to transmit a network communication to a computing device; (ii) generating, by the media player, an attestation watermark indicative of an authenticity of the media player using a cryptographic key; (iii) attaching, by the media player, the attestation watermark to the network communication; and (iv) based on encountering the trigger, transmitting, by the media player, the network communication having the attached attestation watermark to the computing device, the authenticity of the media player being verifiable by the computing device using the attestation watermark.

Some embodiments enable distributing data (e.g., recorded video, photographs, recorded audio, etc.) to a plurality of users in a manner which preserves the privacy of the respective users. Some embodiments leverage homomorphic encryption and proxy re-encryption techniques to manipulate the respective data so that selected portions of it are revealed according to an identity of the user currently accessing the respective data.

Methods, computer-readable media, and devices for tracking an accessing of a media content via a watermark embedded by a network node are disclosed. For example, a processing system including at least one processor may receive, from a first network node, a first copy of a watermark that is embedded by the first network node in a media content. The processing system may further receive a notification comprising a second copy of the watermark and an identification of a first endpoint device, the notification associated with an accessing of the media content by the first endpoint device, and record the accessing of the media content by the first endpoint device.

A system and method for salting and fingerprinting database tables, text files, data feeds, and the like, first resorts the data according to a field or fields in the data set. A salting recipe is selected and applied to the sorted data. A fingerprint of the data is captured after sorting and salting. The data is then restored to its original order before being sent to a trusted third party. Because the data owner retains information concerning the sorting sorting sonar technique, salting technique, and the fingerprint, the data owner can reconstruct the unsalted file from the salted file, and can determine if a wild file contains data from the data file. The salting is difficult to detect by the bad actor, even if the bad actor is aware that the data has been salted.

A plastic item, such as a beverage bottle, conveys two distinct digital watermarks, encoded using two distinct signaling protocols. A first, printed label watermark conveys a retailing payload, including a Global Trade Item Number (GTIN) used by a point-of-sale scanner in a retail store to identify and price the item when presented for checkout. A second, plastic texture watermark conveys a recycling payload, including data identifying the composition of the plastic. The use of two different signaling protocols assures that a point-of-sale scanner will not spend its limited time and computational resources working to decode the recycling watermark, which lacks the data needed for retail checkout. In some embodiments, a recycling apparatus makes advantageous use of both types of watermarks to identify the plastic composition of the item (e.g., relating GTIN to plastic type using an associated database), thereby increasing the fraction of items that are correctly identified for sorting and recycling. A great number of other features and arrangements are also detailed.