A printable electronic document is received into a computerized device. The printable document contains original markings that can be printed on print media to produce a printed document. However, before printing, a computerized device adds first hidden markings to the printable electronic document. Such first hidden markings have a first vector graphic size. Further, the computerized device removes a pattern from the first hidden markings in the printable electronic document and adds (only to the removed pattern in the printable electronic document) second hidden markings that have the same vector graphic size as, but are out of phase with, the first hidden markings. Also, the computerized device adds geometrically shaped distraction markings to the printable electronic document. The geometrically shaped distraction markings have a second vector graphic size that is much larger than the first vector graphic size of the first and second hidden markings.

To generate a security mark, a system prints test pattern marks of varying frequencies on a first substrate. The system copies the test pattern marks onto a second substrate. The system analyzes the copy to identify a frequency or period range for test patterns that exhibit a high level of contrast as compared to the original. It then uses the identified range to generate an array of cells having pantograph marks of various foreground/background frequencies/periods. The system prints the array and generates polygons that contain cells in which the foreground is visually distinguished from the background. The system identifies the polygon having an inner point having a largest range to edge. It identifies the frequency/period of the background pattern and of the foreground pattern of the cell that contains the inner point. It then generates a pantograph mark having a background and foreground that correspond the identified frequencies or periods.

An image forming apparatus includes an embedding device and an image output device. The embedding device is configured to embed a pair of identical electronic information in a pair of electronic embedment areas outside a print guarantee area and within a printable area of a recording medium. The pair of electronic embedment areas is along a pair of opposite sides of the recording medium. The image output device is configured to print out an image with the pair of identical electronic information embedded on the recording medium.

Some implementations may include a computer-implemented method for applying at least two digital watermarks to a digital document, the method including: receiving a digital document comprising visual contents; generating a first digital watermark to be visually presented at a first time point; generating a second digital watermark to be visually presented at a second time point, the second digital watermark being different from the first digital watermark and the second time point being different from the first time point; and applying both the first digital watermark and second digital watermark to the digital document t.

A method and an apparatus of verifying a usability of a biological characteristic image are disclosed. The method includes: receiving a biological characteristic image uploaded by a terminal; verifying a digital watermark included in the biological characteristic image; and if verification is passed, determining that the biological characteristic image is usable. The technical solution of the present disclosure can ensure that a biological characteristic image generated in a device can only be used in that device, thus avoiding a security problem which may be caused by the theft and interception of a biological characteristic image of a user when storing or transmitting the image using a biological recognition technology.

Imagery captured by a point-of-sale scanner (e.g., in a supermarket) for purposes of barcode decoding, is contrast-enhanced preparatory to use for watermark decoding despite the fact that such operation may sometimes result in contrast between certain pixels being diminished. A great variety of other features and arrangements are also detailed.

A job includes pages that have multiple items positioned according to coordinates. A sheet coordinate location identifier for each of the items (that corresponds to the coordinates for the items) is added to the job. The job is printed to produce printed sheets of items (printed items) printed according to the coordinates. A cutting device cuts the printed sheets, according to the coordinates, into individually cut items. Each of the cut items includes the sheet coordinate location identifier printed thereon, and this identifies the pre-cutting locations of the cut items within the uncut sheets of print media. The cut items are inspected for cutting defects to identify defective items. Pre-cutting locations of the defective items are identified using only the sheet coordinate location identifier printed on the defective items. A repair recommendation for the cutting device is based on the most common pre-cutting location of the defective items.

The present invention provides methods and systems to improve network searching for watermarked content. In some implementations we employ keyword searching to narrow the universe of possible URL candidates. A resulting URL list is searched for digital watermarking. A system is provided to allow customer input. For example, a customer enters keywords or network locations. The keywords or network locations are provided to a watermark-enabled web browser which accesses locations associated with the keywords or network locations. Some implementations of the present invention employ a plurality of distributed watermark-enabled web browsers. Other aspects of the invention provide methods and system to facilitate desktop searching and automated metadata gathering and generating. In one implementation a digital watermark is used to determine whether metadata associated with an image or audio file is current or fresh. The metadata is updated when it is out of date. Watermarks can also be used to link to or facilitate so-called on-line blogs (or online conversations).

Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture to detect steganographically hidden content in a media file are disclosed. An example system includes a media classifier to determine type of a media file, and a detector to apply a detection technique to the media file. The detector selects the detection technique from a plurality of steganographically-based detection techniques based on the media file type. The system also includes a remediator to apply a remediation technique to the media file based on whether the detector detects steganographically hidden content in the media file.

A method, apparatus and system for rendering a security mark, can involve providing two variable layers of data text for a security mark including a first variable layer and a second variable layer, and applying the security mark to a recording medium using the two variable layers to create a third variable layer of the security mark. The second variable layer can be applied out of phase or orthogonally from the first variable layer at the same frequency, which can form the third variable layer with data text that is decodable. The third variable layer with the data text can be decodable with a decoding screen. In addition, the first, second, and third variable layers can share the same area. The security mark may comprise a correlation mark.