Dynamic Media Watermarks for Verifiable Chain of Title
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Tracking ownership of media and illegitimate copies is difficult with current solutions, making it challenging to verify the chain of title and authenticity.
Innovation Solution
A watermark is generated specific to the media owner, updated with each change in ownership, and recorded on a blockchain to verify the chain of title.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If current solutions are used to track media ownership, then the system is simple, but the ability to track ownership and illegitimate copies is difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the watermark into multiple independent components that can be individually manipulated and tracked. Each watermark segment can be modified independently to represent different ownership states, allowing the system to track the complete chain of title through sequential modifications of these segmented elements.
Solution Approach 2:
The watermark is designed to be dynamic rather than static, automatically changing when ownership transfers occur. The system dynamically updates the watermark embedded in media files to reflect current ownership status, and this dynamic state is synchronized with blockchain records to provide real-time tracking of media provenance.
2Loss of information
If a watermark system is implemented to track ownership, then ownership tracking becomes possible, but the complexity of verifying chain of title increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements feedback mechanisms where the blockchain network continuously monitors and verifies watermark changes. When a watermark is modified to reflect ownership transfer, the system receives feedback through blockchain consensus validation, ensuring that only legitimate ownership changes are recorded and verified, thereby maintaining information integrity while managing verification complexity through distributed consensus.
Solution Approach 2:
The blockchain serves as an intermediary layer between the watermark system and the verification process. Rather than requiring direct complex verification of watermark authenticity, the blockchain intermediary provides a trusted ledger that records and validates all watermark changes, simplifying the verification process by offloading the complex authentication logic to the decentralized blockchain network.
3Reliability
If watermarks are updated with each ownership change, then chain of title verification is enabled, but the process becomes more time-consuming
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by pre-establishing the blockchain infrastructure and watermark embedding mechanisms before ownership transfers occur. The framework is prepared in advance with all necessary cryptographic keys, watermark templates, and blockchain node configurations, allowing ownership transfers to be executed quickly by simply updating the watermark and recording the transaction, rather than setting up the entire verification system at the moment of transfer.
Data Source
AI summary
A watermark is generated. The generated watermark is specific to an individual owner of a media. The media may be any type of electronic media, such as, an image, a document, a movie, an audio file, a software application, and/or the like. The watermark is inserted into the media. The watermark in the media is changed when ownership of the media is changed. For example, as the media is sold to a new owner, the new owner's watermark is added to the media so that a chain of title can be verified directly from the media. In addition, the chain of title may also be verified via a blockchain.