Digimarc Awarded Patent for Digital Watermarking - InternetNews.
Digimarc Corp., based in Portland, Oregon, announced it received a patent for its digital watermarking technology.
Digital watermarks allow image creators to authenticate and track digital media such as pictures and video. The technology embeds an invisible "watermark" into image pixels, allowing image authors to embed identification and copyright information.
The U.S. Patent No. 5,710,834, "Method and Apparatus Responsive to a Code Signal Conveyed Through a Graphic Image," allows active control of systems and devices that encounter watermarked media.
Geoff Rhoads, Digimarc CTO and founder, explained, "The significance of this invention is best illustrated by the ability to read watermarks after they have been printed and scanned back into a computer."
"Many applications require a highly reliable method of transmitting such digital information from physical media to digital media and vice versa. The '834 patent directly resolves this basic necessity, thus enabling printed watermarks to act as computer instructions," continued Rhoads.