Obscured Visible Code for Piracy Detection
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Solution Overview
Problem
The widespread piracy of movies and other digital media content remains a significant challenge, as existing measures are inadequate to prevent unauthorized capture and distribution, despite encryption efforts, as legitimate content can still be recorded and shared without being detected.
Innovation Solution
Encoding digital media with obscured visible codes that can be detected using digital image processing techniques, allowing for the identification and prevention of unauthorized capture and distribution by recognizing these codes in captured imagery, even if the capture is analog or visual, and enabling the tracking of the location and time of piracy.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If content is encrypted using secret keys for digital playback, then unauthorized copying and distribution is prevented, but legitimate decrypted content can still be recorded and shared without detection
Solution Approach 1:
A visible code is embedded into the content before distribution to theaters. This code serves as a preliminary protective measure that enables later detection of piracy attempts, allowing the system to identify and respond to unauthorized recordings before they can be widely distributed
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements a feedback mechanism where captured content is analyzed for the presence of the embedded visible code. When piracy is detected through code recognition, the system can notify authorities and take corrective actions, creating a closed-loop protection system that responds to piracy attempts
2Measurement precision
If a visible code is embedded in the content for piracy detection, then unauthorized capture can be identified, but the code must remain unobtrusive to viewers
Solution Approach 1:
The visible code is designed with local quality characteristics that make it detectable by automated systems while remaining unobtrusive to human viewers. The code's visual properties are optimized to be sufficiently distinct for machine recognition algorithms to identify, yet subtle enough in normal viewing conditions to not distract or annoy audiences
Solution Approach 2:
The system replaces human visual inspection with automated digital image processing and recognition algorithms. These computational mechanisms can detect the embedded visible code with high precision even when the code is designed to be subtle or unobtrusive to human viewers, thus resolving the contradiction between detectability and viewer experience
3Extent of automation
If automated image processing is used to detect the visible code, then piracy can be automatically identified, but the system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The detection system is designed to be self-service in the sense that it autonomously performs piracy detection without requiring constant human intervention. Once deployed, the automated image processing and code recognition systems continuously monitor content independently, reducing operational complexity over time despite the initial technical sophistication required
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach effectively identifies and prevents pirated content by allowing automated systems to recognize and respond to encoded visual codes within captured media, thereby disrupting further processing and distribution of unauthorized copies, and aids in tracing the source of piracy.
Implementation Method 1
recognizing, by the processor of the computing device, a digital code that is visible in the captured imagery of the digital video program
Data Source
AI summary
Motion pictures or other digital media content can be encoded with visible, yet obscured, digital codes that can be optically detected by a camera or other automated image processing device. If a code is recognized in captured media content, further capture, playback and/or distribution can be halted, as desired. Because the code is visible (albeit hidden) in the digital imagery itself, capture by another camera or other optical device will not typically negate the usefulness of the code. That is, the code is visibly present within the imagery itself, so subsequent capture of the video imagery will also capture the code, thereby allowing for detection and/or prevention.