Upon capturing a digital watermark-embedded print product by an image capturing device held by the hand of a user and extracting embedded information, the relative speed between the hand-held image capturing device and the print product changes, failing in extracting the embedded additional information. In an embodiment, the image capturing device performs continuous shooting for every small area to read the print product. A shoot image is analyzed to calculate the feature amount of the image. Information about an image capturing quality characteristic generated at the time of capturing the print product is estimated, and a change of the feature amount accompanying the image capturing quality characteristic is predicted based on the estimation result. A code indicated by the watermark is determined based on the calculation result and the prediction result.

The invention is a method for scanning an image data file to determine the presence of a payload, including the steps of identifying the values of one or more lower-order bits in the bytes of an uncompressed image data file to determine the distribution of values at one or more bit positions, and comparing bit position images to reveal hidden payloads from significant variations in contiguous color blocks in the bit position images not otherwise explainable from the original image.

This disclosure describes a distributed reader architecture for a mobile computing device such as cellular telephone handset. One claim recites a portable computing device including: memory for storing a library of processing components, the library including a signal detector component and an audio fingerprinting component; a microphone for capturing ambient audio; one or more processors configured for: invoking the audio fingerprinting component for processing captured audio to produce an audio fingerprint, wherein the audio fingerprinting component comprises a filtering process, in which the filtering process produces components of the captured audio that are used to produce the audio fingerprint; and invoking the signal detector component, in which the signal detector component comprises a fast detect process for analyzing the captured audio to determine the presence of an auxiliary signal within the captured audio, and when the presence of the auxiliary signal is detected, controlling the signal detector component for detecting the auxiliary signal to yield a detected auxiliary signal. The device further includes a communications output for communicating the audio fingerprint and the detected auxiliary signal to a remotely located server. Of course, other claims and combinations are provided as well.

The present disclosure relates to advanced image processing and encoded signal processing. One claim currently recites an image processing method comprising the acts: receiving a digital representation of artwork, the artwork having an area of uniform color; generating a two-dimensional data signal that redundantly encodes a plural-bit message, the data signal comprising plural elements, each of which has a single bit value; receiving a two-dimensional synchronization signal comprising plural elements, each of which has a plural-bit value, each element of said data signal having an element of the synchronization signal corresponding thereto; processing the two-dimensional data signal with the two-dimensional synchronization signal and with a gradient function to yield a two-dimensional gradient marking signal; and printing an ink counterpart of the gradient marking signal on a medium with the artwork, said printing comprising printing plural dithered two-dimensional blocks of at least four contiguous elements each, in which one or more elements of each block are printed to be dark. Of course, other claims and combinations are described as well.

An information processing apparatus includes a communication interface to communicate data including image data with an image forming apparatus, a data storage device to store background pattern data, and circuitry. The circuitry causes the communication interface to transmit the background pattern data and a registration request command to the image forming apparatus, generates synthesis information, generates a background pattern synthesis drawing command for instructing the image forming apparatus to synthesize the background pattern data with each page data of the image data, based on the synthesis information of the page data, generates a printing command for printing the image data, generates print request information for requesting the image forming apparatus to print the image data, and causes the communication interface to transmit the print request information to the image forming apparatus.

[Problem] To provide an educational toy which allows an observed action to be experienced artificially. [Solution] A toy system (900) is used by bringing a magnifying-glass type hand-held instrument (930) into contact with a page (912) of a main body portion (910) having a picture portion (914). The magnifying-glass type hand-held instrument (930) captures an image of the picture portion (914), and determines the location, within the image in said picture portion, that has been captured. From pre-stored image data of a picture image that is the same as the picture portion (914), image data for a part (a partial image) corresponding to the location being captured are then read out and are displayed on a touch panel (942). If the location being captured fulfills certain location conditions, one image element from image elements W41 to W49 is also selected as a special image and is displayed superimposed on the partial image.

The disclosed embodiments provide for checking documents for security compliance when the documents are printed, scanned, or copied. A security status is determined based on security indicators within a document's content. Security indicators can be located within a document's text, figures, watermarks, security marks, and invisible marks. Security indicators can be found by comparing a document's content to a set of stored indicator descriptions. The indicators found are used to determine a document score and security responses are triggered based on the document score.

A method and apparatus for concealing data. Frequency information is identified for a number of data object types of a set of data objects in the data using a frequency map. A set of pixel values is assigned to the set of data objects based on the frequency information for use in encrypting the set of data objects to form encrypted data. An image is generated that includes a set of pixels that represents the encrypted data. Each pixel in the set of pixels has a pixel value from the set of pixel values that is assigned to a corresponding data object of the set of data objects.

In one example, a first directive is received at a system. The directive is to embed, into content selected via a printer application accessed at a network-connected printer, a network address. A carrier image that includes the network address in encoded form is generated. A second directive, to provide first content to the printer, is received via the application. The carrier image is merged into the first content. After the merging, the merged first content is sent to the printer for printing.

The present disclosure relates to signal processing such as digital watermarking and other encoded signals. One claim recites a substrate comprising a plurality of first areas and a plurality of second areas, in which each of the plurality of first areas comprises a color ink printed therein with a UV topcoat layer printed over the color ink, in which the UV topcoat layer includes a material that absorbs at or around 350 nm and emits in the visible spectrum, and in which each of the plurality of second areas comprises the color ink printed therein, and in which the plurality of first areas is arranged on the substrate in a 2-dimensional pattern that is machine-readable from image data depicting the plurality of first areas, and in which the 2-dimensional pattern represents signal elements that cover only between 1-20% of an area on the substrate, and in which contrast in the image data between the plurality of first areas and the plurality second areas comprises a contrast difference in the range 75%>contrast difference>8%. Of course, other claims and combinations are provided in the specification with reference to specific implementations and related examples.