Adaptive Streaming Watermarking via Selective Chunk Encoding
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing digital content watermarking techniques incur significant processing power and bandwidth overheads, and are inefficient in tracing unauthorized content redistribution, especially in adaptive streaming environments where content is delivered in multiple bit-rates.
Innovation Solution
The method involves encoding digital content into multiple streams with different bit-rates, where only a subset of chunks is watermarked with a unique user identifier, allowing for efficient watermarking and real-time processing without degrading the content quality, and enabling identification of unauthorized retransmissions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If all chunks of digital content are watermarked with user-specific identifiers, then unauthorized redistribution can be traced, but processing power and bandwidth overheads increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The content is divided into multiple chunks, and only a subset of these chunks is watermarked with user-specific identifiers. This segmentation approach maintains tracing capability while reducing the processing load and bandwidth requirements compared to watermarking all chunks.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of applying watermarking to all chunks (excessive action), the system applies watermarking to only a partial subset of chunks. This partial action is sufficient for tracing unauthorized redistribution while significantly reducing the computational and bandwidth overhead.
2Adaptability or versatility
If multiple streams with different bit-rates are prepared for adaptive streaming, then content delivery adapts to transmission conditions, but the complexity of content management increases
Solution Approach 1:
The content is segmented into chunks that can be selectively watermarked across multiple bit-rate streams. This allows the system to manage complexity by processing only specific chunks rather than entire streams, while still providing adaptive streaming capabilities.
Solution Approach 2:
Different chunks are treated differently - some are watermarked with user-specific identifiers while others are not. This local differentiation allows the system to maintain adaptability across multiple streams while managing complexity through selective processing.
3Use of energy by moving object
If a subset of chunks is watermarked instead of all chunks, then processing overhead is reduced, but the robustness of watermarking detection may be compromised
Solution Approach 1:
Watermarking is applied to a carefully selected partial subset of chunks rather than all chunks. This partial action reduces processing overhead while maintaining sufficient robustness for tracing unauthorized redistribution, as the watermarked chunks provide adequate identification capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The watermarking approach uses multiple copies of watermarked content across different chunks. Even if only a subset is watermarked, the distribution of watermarks across multiple chunks provides redundancy that maintains detection robustness.
Data Source
Figure 1~2
AI summary
The present invention provides a means and an apparatus for watermarking a digital signal. A particular content which is to be made available by a content provider to potential content users is prepared by encoding the content into a plurality of encoded streams, each encoded stream being encoded according to a different bit-rate. Each encoded stream comprises a plurality of chunks and each chunk is retrievable by a requestor of content. Upon request of said content by a user, the plurality of chunks making up the content are selected from the plurality of the different encoded streams and a subset from that plurality of chunks is watermarked using a unique identifying parameter associated with the requestor.