Digital Incentive Token Encryption in Image Metadata
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current digital image technologies do not allow for the conveyance of additional information or functionality beyond the visual content, limiting user interaction and value within shared images.
Innovation Solution
Embedding digital tokens, such as digital incentive tokens, within digital images using encryption and altering image metadata or pixel data, enabling recipients to access additional information or take actions beyond mere viewing, even when images are shared across platforms that strip metadata.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If digital tokens are embedded within digital images by altering image data or metadata, then additional information and functionality are conveyed to recipients, but the complexity of the image processing system increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent embeds digital tokens within the structure of digital images by nesting the token data inside existing image components such as metadata fields, pixel data, or file headers. This allows additional information to be conveyed without adding separate transmission channels, thereby resolving the contradiction between information conveyance and system complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a multi-functional image system where the same image file serves both as a visual medium and as a carrier for digital tokens. By making the image container universal for both purposes, the system avoids needing separate complex infrastructure for token delivery, thus improving information conveyance while limiting complexity growth.
2Reliability
If encryption is used to protect embedded digital tokens, then security and integrity are enhanced, but the difficulty of detecting and measuring the token increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces decryption keys and authentication mechanisms as intermediaries between the encrypted token and the user. These intermediaries allow the token to remain encrypted and secure during transmission and storage, while still enabling authorized detection and measurement when needed. The intermediary layer resolves the contradiction by providing controlled access rather than complete concealment.
3Ease of manufacture
If metadata is altered to embed tokens, then the token can be embedded without changing the visual image, but platforms that strip metadata will remove the token
Solution Approach 1:
The patent embeds digital tokens in specific localized regions of the image file such as metadata fields, EXIF data, or specific pixel patterns that are less likely to be stripped by platforms. By targeting specific local areas rather than the entire image structure, the system achieves easy embedding while maintaining persistence against metadata-stripping platforms.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent embeds tokens in the structural dimension of the image file (metadata, file headers, pixel data patterns) rather than relying solely on the visual dimension. This dimensional shift allows the token to survive platform processing that targets visual metadata, as the embedding occurs at a different structural level that may be preserved or is harder to remove.
Data Source
AI summary
Embedding of digital incentive tokens within a digital image can occur cryptographically using a public key in some embodiments. An encrypted digital incentive token may be embedded within a digital image, including a variety of encrypted information. The digital image with the embedded digital incentive token may be sent to users via delivery mechanisms such as direct webpage embedding, email, text message, and social media sharing. An image recipient may be able to view the image and also take additional action including gaining access to the embedded digital incentive token. Digital incentive tokens can be embedded by altering image metadata so that the image itself is not changed in some embodiments, but data associated with the image is changed to identify the token. Pixel data can be altered to reflect a token for an image. Digital incentive tokens can also be tracked through different platforms to determine usage.