초록 ▼

An image processing apparatus is operable to embed data into an image. Images such as those generated from an inter-laced scan may comprise a frame of image data, the frame comprising first and second image fields. The image processing apparatus comprises a combining processor operable to introduce

An image processing apparatus is operable to embed data into an image. Images such as those generated from an inter-laced scan may comprise a frame of image data, the frame comprising first and second image fields. The image processing apparatus comprises a combining processor operable to introduce the data to be embedded into at least one of the first and second fields of the image frame. As such a likelihood of a perceivable effect of the embedded data on the image may be reduced, because the images are viewed as a frame. The embedded data may also have an increased likelihood of being detected because some processing may effect the image frame more then the fields of the image. The combining processor may be operable to represent the data to be embedded in a transform domain form, and, in combination with a transform processor, combine the data to be embedded with the first and/or second fields with the image in a transform domain form or a spatial domain form. The transform domain may provide a plurality of sub-bands and the data to be embedded may be introduced into at least one of the sub-bands of the transform domain form of the first and/or second fields of the image. Furthermore, the combining processor may be operable to introduce data to be embedded into at least one other sub-band, and the combining processor may be operable in combination with the transform processor to combine the data in the other sub-band with the frame of image data in the transform or the spatial domain.

대표청구항 ▼

The invention claimed is: 1. An image processing apparatus operable to embed data into an image, said image comprising a frame of image data, said frame comprising first and second image fields generated from an inter-laced scan of the image, said apparatus comprising: a combining processor operabl

The invention claimed is: 1. An image processing apparatus operable to embed data into an image, said image comprising a frame of image data, said frame comprising first and second image fields generated from an inter-laced scan of the image, said apparatus comprising: a combining processor operable to represent said data to be embedded in a transform domain form, and, in combination with a transform processor, to combine said data to be embedded with at least one of said first and second fields of said image in one of: a transform domain form, said transform processor generating a transform domain form of said first and second fields, said data being combined with said first and second fields by said combining processor in said transform domain, or a spatial domain form of said at least one of said first and second fields, said transform processor generating a spatial domain representation of said transform domain form of said data to be embedded, said data being combined with said at least one of said first and second fields of said image by said combining processor in said spatial domain, wherein said transform domain provides a plurality of sub-bands and said combining processor is operable to combine data to be embedded with a first sub-band of said first field, and to combine said data with a second sub-band of said second field of said image data in said transform or said spatial domain, and wherein said first sub-band and said second sub-band comprise mutually exclusive spatial frequency components. 2. The image processing apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said data embedded in said first sub-band includes first data and said data embedded in said second sub-band includes second data, said first and second data being different. 3. The image processing apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said data embedded in said first sub-band and said data embedded in said second sub-band are the same data. 4. The image processing apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said first sub-band in which said data is introduced into said first and second fields represents in said transform domain low spatial frequencies of said image in one direction and high spatial frequencies of said image in another direction, and said second sub-band in which said data is introduced in said image frame represents in the transform domain high spatial frequencies of said image in said one direction and low spatial frequencies of said image in said another direction. 5. The image processing apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said transform processor is operable in combination with said combining processor to introduce said data to be embedded into said image in accordance with the wavelet transform, of at least one of said data, said image frame and said at least one of said first and second fields, said wavelet transform providing said plurality of sub-bands. 6. The image processing apparatus as claimed in claim 5, wherein said first sub-band into which said data is introduced into said at least one of said first and second fields has one of low vertical, high horizontal frequencies and high vertical, low horizontal frequencies sub-bands, and said second sub-band into which said data is introduced into said image frame is the other of said low vertical, high horizontal frequencies and high vertical, low horizontal frequencies sub-bands. 7. The image processing apparatus as claimed in claim 6, wherein said data is introduced into said sub-bands in a scan direction, said scan direction being in the same direction in the sub-band as the direction of the low spatial frequencies of the image. 8. The image processing apparatus as claimed in claim 1, comprising: a modulator operable to modulate a Pseudo Random Symbol Stream with each of the data symbols to be embedded, said modulated Pseudo Random Symbol Stream being introduced into said transform domain representation. 9. The image processing apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said data is formed into first and second data sets, and said combining processor is operable to introduce said first and second data sets into said at least one of said first and second image fields of said image frame respectively. 10. The image processing apparatus as claimed in claim 9, wherein said data comprises data items, each data item and a copy of said each data item forming said first and said second data sets respectively. 11. The image processing apparatus as claimed in claim 10, wherein said data items to be embedded include a Unique Material Identifier (UMID). 12. The image processing apparatus operable to detect and recover data embedded into an image by the image processing apparatus according to claim 1, said apparatus comprising: a data processor operable to identify at least one of first and second fields of said image into which data has been embedded; a transform processor operable to generate a transform domain representation of said at least one of the first and second fields into which the data has been embedded; and a data detector operable to detect and recover the data from said transform domain representation of said at least one of the first and second fields from the sub-bands into which the data has been embedded. 13. The image processing apparatus as claimed in claim 12, wherein said data detector is operable to combine first signals representative of the first data set recovered from said sub-band in said image fields, with second signals representative of the second data set from said other sub-band in said image frame to form a composite signal from which said data items are recovered. 14. A method of embedding data into an image, said image comprising a frame of image data, said frame comprising first and second image fields generated from an inter-laced scan of the image, said method comprising: representing said data to be embedded in a transform domain form; combining said data to be embedded with at least one of said first and second fields of said image in one of: a transform domain form, said data being combined with said first and second fields in said transform domain, or a spatial domain form of said at least one of said first and second fields, by generating a spatial domain representation of said transform domain form of said data to be embedded, said data being combined with said at least one of said first and second fields of said image in said spatial domain, wherein said transform domain provides a plurality of sub-bands and said combining comprises combining data to be embedded into a first sub-band of a transform domain representation of said first field and combining said data with a second sub-band of said second field of said image data in said transform or said spatial domain, wherein said first sub-band and said second sub-band comprise mutually exclusive frequency components. 15. The method of detecting and recovering data embedded in an image by the image processing method according to claim 14, said method further comprising: identifying at least one of first and second fields of said image into which data has been embedded; generating a transform domain representation of said at least one of the first and second fields into which the data has been embedded; and detecting and recovering the data from said transform domain representation of said at least one of the first and second fields from the sub-bands into which the data has been embedded. 16. The computer program stored on a computer readable medium having computer executable instructions, which when loaded on to a data processor causes the data processor to perform the method according to claim 14. 17. The computer product stored on a computer readable medium having recorded thereon information signals representative of the computer program claimed in claim 16. 18. An apparatus for embedding data into an image, said image comprising a frame of image data, said frame comprising first and second image fields generated from an inter-laced scan of the image, said apparatus comprising: means for representing said data to be embedded in a transform domain form; means for combining said data to be embedded with at least one of said first and second fields of said image in one of: a transform domain form, said data being combined with said first and second fields in said transform domain, or a spatial domain form of said at least one of said first and second fields, by generating a spatial domain representation of said transform domain form of said data to be embedded, said data being combined with said at least one of said first and second fields of said image in said spatial domain, wherein said transform domain provides a plurality of sub-bands and said means for combining is operable to combine data to be embedded with a first sub-band of said first field, and to combine said data with a second sub-band of said second field of said image data in said transform or said spatial domain, and wherein said first sub-band and said second sub-band comprise mutually exclusive spatial frequency components. 19. The apparatus for detecting and recovering data embedded in an image by the apparatus according to claim 18, said apparatus further comprising: means for identifying at least one of first and second fields of said image into which data has been embedded; means for generating a transform domain representation of said at least one of the first and second fields into which the data has been embedded; and means for detecting and recovering the data from said transform domain representation of said at least one of the first and second fields from the sub-bands into which the data has been embedded. 20. A computer program stored on a computer readable medium providing computer executable instructions, which when loaded on to a data processor configures said data processor to operate as an image processing apparatus as claimed in claim 1. 21. computer program product stored on a computer readable medium having recorded thereon information signals representative of the computer program claimed in claim 20. 22. An image processing apparatus operable to embed data into an image, said image comprising a frame of image data, said frame comprising first and second image fields generated from an inter-laced scan of the image, said apparatus comprising: a combining processor operable to represent said data to be embedded in a transform domain form, and, in combination with a transform processor, to combine data to be embedded with at least one of said first and second fields of said image in one of: a transform domain form, said transform processor generating a transform domain form of said first and second fields, said data being combined with said first and second fields by said combining processor in said transform domain, or a spatial domain form of said at least one of said first and second fields, said transform processor generating a spatial domain representation of said transform domain form of said data to be embedded, said data being combined with said at least one of said first and second fields of said image by said combining processor in said spatial domain, wherein said transform domain provides a plurality of sub-bands, said data to be embedded being introduced into at least one of said sub-bands of said at least one of said first and second fields of said image, wherein said transform processor is operable in combination with said combining processor to introduce said data to be embedded into said image in accordance with the wavelet transform, of at least one of said data, said image frame and said at least one of said first and second fields, said wavelet transform providing said plurality of sub-bands, wherein said first sub-band into which said data is introduced into said at least one of said first and second fields has one of low vertical, high horizontal frequencies and high vertical, low horizontal frequencies sub-bands, and said second sub-band into which said data is introduced into said image frame is the other of said low vertical, high horizontal frequencies and high vertical, low horizontal frequencies sub-bands, wherein said data is introduced into said sub-bands in a scan direction, said scan direction being in the same direction in the sub-band as the direction of the low spatial frequencies of the image. 23. The image processing apparatus as claimed in claim 22, wherein said combining processor is operable to combine data to be embedded with a first sub-band of said first field, and to combine said data with a second sub-band of said second field of said image data in said transform or said spatial domain. 24. The image processing apparatus as claimed in claim 23, wherein said first sub-band and said second sub-band comprise mutually exclusive spatial frequency components. 25. The image processing apparatus as claimed in claim 23, wherein said data embedded in said first sub-band includes first data and said data embedded in said second sub-band includes second data, said first and second data being different. 26. The image processing apparatus as claimed in claim 23, wherein said data embedded in said first sub-band and said data embedded in said second sub-band are the same data. 27. A computer program product stored on a computer readable medium providing computer executable instructions, which when loaded on to a data processor configures said data processor to operate in accordance with the method according to claim 23. 28. The image processing apparatus as claimed in claim 22, wherein said first sub-band in which said data is introduced into said first and second fields represents in said transform domain low spatial frequencies of said image in one direction and high spatial frequencies of said image in another direction, and said second sub-band in which said data is introduced in said image frame represents in the transform domain high spatial frequencies of said image in said one direction and low spatial frequencies of said image in said another direction. 29. The image processing apparatus as claimed in claim 22, comprising: a modulator operable to modulate a Pseudo Random Symbol Stream with each of the data symbols to be embedded, said modulated Pseudo Random Symbol Stream being introduced into said transform domain representation. 30. The image processing apparatus as claimed in claim 22, wherein said data is formed into first and second data sets, and said combining processor is operable to introduce said first and second data sets into said at least one of said first and second image fields of said image frame respectively. 31. The image processing apparatus as claimed in claim 30, wherein said data comprises data items, each data item and a copy of said each data item forming said first and said second data sets respectively. 32. The image processing apparatus as claimed in claim 31, wherein said data items to be embedded include a Unique Material Identifier (UMID). 33. The image processing apparatus operable to detect and recover data embedded into an image by the image processing apparatus according to claim 22, said apparatus comprising: a data processor operable to identify at least one of first and second fields of said image into which data has been embedded; a transform processor operable to generate a transform domain representation of said at least one of the first and second fields into which the data has been embedded; and a data detector operable to detect and recover the data from said transform domain representation of said at least one of the first and second fields from the sub-bands into which the data has been embedded, wherein said data detector is operable to combine first signals representative of the first data set recovered from said sub-band in said image fields, with second signals representative of the second data set from said other sub-band in said image frame to form a composite signal from which said data items are recovered. 34. A method of embedding data into an image, said image comprising a frame of image data, said frame comprising first and second image fields generated from an inter-laced scan of the image, said method comprising: representing said data to be embedded in a transform domain form; combining said data to be embedded with at least one of said first and second fields of said image in one of: a transform domain form, said data being combined with said first and second fields in said transform domain, or a spatial domain form of said at least one of said first and second fields, by generating a spatial domain representation of said transform domain form of said data to be embedded, said data being combined with said at least one of said first and second fields of said image in said spatial domain, wherein said transform domain provides a plurality of sub-bands and said data to be embedded is combined into at least one of said sub-bands, said data being combined with said at least one of said first and second fields of said image in said sub-band of said fields, said method comprises combining data to be embedded into a first sub-band of a transform domain representation of said first field; and combining said data with a second sub-band of said second field of said image data in said transform or said spatial domain, wherein said combining includes introducing said data to be embedded into said image in accordance with the wavelet transform, of at least one of said data, said image frame and said at least one of said first and second fields, said wavelet transform providing said plurality of sub-bands, wherein said first sub-band into which said data is introduced into said at least one of said first and second fields having one of low vertical, high horizontal frequencies and high vertical, low horizontal frequencies sub-bands, and said second sub-band into which said data is introduced into said image frame being the other of said low vertical, high horizontal frequencies and high vertical, low horizontal frequencies sub-bands, wherein said data being introduced into said sub-bands in a scan direction, said scan direction being in the same direction in the sub-band as the direction of the low spatial frequencies of the image.