Scrambling, descrambling and secure distribution of audio-visual sequences from video encoders based on wavelet processing

1. A process, comprising:

processing a digital stream, formed of video sequences in a digital stream format derived from encoding using wavelets, prior to transmission to a client equipment to generate a modified digital stream by replacement of selected information in the digital stream, the modified digital stream having the digital stream format, and to generate complementary information of any format using the selected information, the complementary information being suitable for permitting reconstruction of the digital stream using the modified digital stream; and

transmitting the modified digital stream and the complementary information separately from a server to the client equipment.

2. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the wavelets comprise frames including blocks that further include coefficients of wavelets describing visual elements, and

wherein the processing comprises scrambling including modifying the coefficients of wavelets belonging to at least one temporal subband resulting from temporal analysis.

3. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the wavelets comprise frames including blocks that further include coefficients of wavelets describing visual elements, and

wherein the processing comprises scrambling including modifying the wavelet coefficients belonging to at least one spatial subband resulting from spatial analysis of a temporal subband.

4. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the wavelets comprise frames including blocks that further include coefficients of wavelets describing visual elements, and

wherein the processing comprises scrambling including modifying the coefficients of wavelets belonging to at least one temporal subband resulting from temporal analysis of one spatial subband.

5. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the wavelets comprise frames including blocks that further include coefficients of wavelets describing visual elements, and

further comprising modifying wavelet coefficients at least randomly selected or defined a priori.

6. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the processing comprises scrambling, wherein parameters for the scrambling are a function of properties of at least one of temporal scalability, spatial scalability, qualitative scalability, transmission rate scalability or scalability by regions of interest offered by digital streams generated by wavelet-based coders.

7. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the wavelets comprise frames including blocks that further include coefficients of wavelets describing visual elements, and

further comprising determining visual intensity of degradation of the video sequences by a quantity of modified wavelet coefficients in at least one spatial-temporal subband.

8. The process according to claim 1 , further comprising determining visual intensity of degradation of the video sequences decoded from the modified digital stream as a function of a position in the original digital stream of modified data, which data represents, according to its positions, values quantified according to different accuracies of wavelet coefficients belonging to a spatial-temporal subband.

9. The process according to claim 1 , further comprising determining visual intensity of degradation of the video sequences decoded from the modified digital stream according to which quality layer of modified wavelet coefficients the video sequences belong to in at least one spatial-temporal subband.

10. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the wavelets comprise frames including blocks that further include coefficients of wavelet describing visual elements, and

further comprising modifying wavelet coefficients in a binary stream.

11. The process according to claim 10 , wherein the wavelets comprise frames including blocks that further include coefficients of wavelets describing visual elements, and

further comprising modifying wavelet coefficients with a partial decoding.

12. The process according to claim 10 , wherein the wavelets comprise frames including blocks that further include coefficients of wavelets describing visual elements, and

further comprising modifying wavelet coefficients during coding or by a decoding then a complete re-encoding.

13. The process according to claim 1 , wherein a size of the modified digital stream is identical to the size of the original digital stream.

14. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the wavelets comprise frames including blocks that further include coefficients of wavelets describing visual elements, and

further comprising substituting the wavelet coefficients with random or calculated values.

15. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the wavelets comprise frames including blocks that further include coefficients of wavelets describing visual elements, and

further comprising determining a duration of visual scrambling obtained in a group of frames as a function of a temporal subband to which modified wavelet coefficients belong.

16. The process according to claim 1 , further comprising spatially limiting visual scrambling obtained in a group of frames in a region of interest of at least one frame.

17. The process according to claim 1 , further comprising organizing the complementary information in layers of at least one of temporal, spatial, qualitative, transmission rate scalability, or scalability by region of interest.

18. The process according to claim 1 , further comprising progressively descrambling the modified digital stream with different levels of at least one of quality, resolution, frame rate, or according to a region of interest via sending a part of the complementary information corresponding to layers of at least one of qualitative, spatial temporal scalability or scalability for a region of interest.

19. The process according to claim 1 , further comprising partially descrambling the modified stream according to different levels of at least one of quality, resolution, frame rate, or according to a region of interest via sending a part of the complementary information corresponding to a layer or layers of at least one of qualitative, spatial, temporal scalability or scalability for this region of interest.

20. The process according to claim 1 , further comprising synthesizing the digital stream in the digital steam format in the client equipment as a function of the modified digital stream and the complementary information.

21. The process according to claim 1 , further comprising realizing transmission of the modified digital stream via a physically distributed material support.

22. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the modified digital stream undergoes operations of at least one of transcoding, rearrangement or extraction of frames or groups of frames during transmission.

23. The process according to claim 1 , further comprising realizing transmission of the complementary information via a physically distributed support material.

24. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the wavelets comprise frames including blocks that further include coefficients of wavelets describing visual elements, and

further comprising reversibly modifying the wavelet coefficients and further comprising reconstituting a digital stream from the modified digital stream and from the complementary information, wherein the reconstituted digital stream is identical to the digital stream.

25. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the wavelets comprise frames including blocks that further include coefficients of wavelets describing visual elements, and

further comprising reversibly modifying the wavelet coefficients and further comprising reconstituting a portion of the digital stream from the modified digital stream and from the complementary information, wherein the reconstituted digital stream is identical to a corresponding portion in the digital stream.

26. The process according to claim 24 , further comprising reconstituting a descrambled video stream, wherein the reconstituting is at least controlled or limited in terms of at least one of a predefined frame rate, resolution, transmission rate, or quality as a function of rights of a user.

27. The process according to claim 25 , further comprising reconstituting a descrambled video stream, wherein the reconstituting is at least controlled or limited in terms of at least one of predefined frame rate, resolution, transmission rate, or quality as a function of rights of a user.

28. The process according to claim 24 , further comprising reconstituting a descrambled video stream, wherein the reconstituting is at least controlled or limited in terms of at least one of predefined frame rate, resolution, transmission rate, or quality as a function of viewing apparatus on which it is visualized.

29. The process according to claim 25 , further comprising reconstituting a descrambled video stream, wherein the reconstituting is at least controlled or limited in terms of at least one of predefined frame rate, resolution, transmission rate, or quality as a function of viewing apparatus on which it is visualized.

30. The process according to claim 24 , further comprising reconstituting a descrambled video stream in a progressive manner in stages under which reconstitution of the digital stream is achieved.

31. The process according to claim 25 , further comprising reconstituting a descrambled video stream in a progressive manner in stages under which reconstitution of the digital stream is achieved.

32. A system for fabricating a video stream comprising:

at least one multimedia server configured to separate an original video stream, formed of video sequences in a digital stream format derived from encoding using wavelets, into a modified digital stream by replacing selected information and into complementary information using the selected information; and

at least one client equipment to receive the modified digital stream and the complementary information separately from the server and to reconstruct the original video stream as a function of the modified digital stream and the complementary information.

33. An apparatus, comprising:

a module configured to separate an original video stream, formed of video sequences in a digital stream format derived from encoding using wavelets, into a modified digital stream by replacing selected information and into complementary information including the selected information, the complementary information being suitable for permitting reconstruction of the digital stream using the modified digital stream; and

a transmission unit to transmit the modified digital stream and the complementary information to at least one client equipment, separately, to permit reconstruction of the original video stream as a function of the modified digital stream and the complementary information.

34. An article of manufacture including a computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon that, if executed on a computing device, cause the computing device to perform a method comprising:

processing a digital stream, formed of video sequences in a digital stream format derived from encoding using wavelets, prior to transmission to client equipment, to generate a modified digital stream by replacement of selected information in the digital stream, the modified digital stream having the digital stream format, and to generate complementary information of any format using the selected information, the complementary information being suitable for permitting reconstruction of the digital stream using the modified digital stream; and

transmitting the modified digital stream and the complementary information separately from a server to the client equipment.

35. The article according to claim 34 , wherein the wavelets comprise frames including blocks that further include coefficients of wavelets describing visual elements, and

wherein the processing comprises scrambling including modifying the coefficients of wavelets belonging to at least one temporal subband resulting from temporal analysis.

36. The article according to claim 34 , wherein the wavelets comprise frames including blocks that further include coefficients of wavelets describing visual elements, and

wherein the processing comprises scrambling including modifying the wavelet coefficients belonging to at least one spatial subband resulting from spatial analysis of a temporal subband.

37. The article according to claim 34 , wherein the wavelets comprise frames including blocks that further include coefficients of wavelets describing visual elements, and

wherein the processing comprises scrambling including modifying the coefficients of wavelets belonging to at least one temporal subband resulting from temporal analysis of one spatial subband.

38. The article according to claim 34 , wherein the wavelets comprise frames including blocks that further include coefficients of wavelets describing visual elements, and

wherein the method further comprises modifying wavelet coefficients at least randomly selected or defined a priori.

39. The article according to claim 34 , wherein the processing comprises scrambling, wherein parameters for the scrambling are a function of properties of at least one of temporal scalability, spatial scalability, qualitative scalability, transmission rate scalability or scalability by regions of interest offered by digital streams generated by wavelet-based coders.

40. The article according to claim 34 , wherein the wavelets comprise frames including blocks that further include coefficients of wavelets describing visual elements, and

wherein the method further comprises determining visual intensity of degradation of the video sequences by a quantity of modified wavelet coefficients in at least one spatial-temporal subband.

41. The article according to claim 34 , wherein the method further comprises determining visual intensity of degradation of the video sequences decoded from the modified digital stream as a function of a position in the original digital stream of modified data, which data represents, according to its positions, values quantified according to different accuracies of wavelet coefficients belonging to a spatial-temporal subband.

42. The article according to claim 34 , wherein the method further comprises determining visual intensity of degradation of the video sequences decoded from the modified digital stream according to which quality layer of modified wavelet coefficients the video sequences belong to in at least one spatial-temporal subband.

43. The article according to claim 34 , wherein the wavelets comprise frames including blocks that further include coefficients of wavelets describing visual elements, and

wherein the method further comprises modifying wavelet coefficients in a binary stream.

44. The article according to claim 43 , wherein the wavelets comprise frames including blocks that further include coefficients of wavelets describing visual elements, and

wherein the method further comprises modifying wavelet coefficients with a partial decoding.

45. The article according to claim 43 , wherein the wavelets comprise frames including blocks that further include coefficients of wavelets describing visual elements, and

wherein the method further comprises modifying wavelet coefficients during coding or by a decoding then a complete re-encoding.

46. The article according to claim 34 , wherein a size of the modified digital stream is identical to the size of the original digital stream.

47. The article according to claim 34 , wherein the wavelets comprise frames including blocks that further include coefficients of wavelets describing visual elements, and

wherein the method further comprises substituting the wavelet coefficients with random or calculated values.

48. The article according to claim 34 , wherein the wavelets comprise frames including blocks that further include coefficients of wavelets describing visual elements, and

wherein the method further comprises determining a duration of visual scrambling obtained in a group of frames as a function of a temporal subband to which modified wavelet coefficients belong.

49. The article according to claim 34 , wherein the method further comprises spatially limiting visual scrambling obtained in a group of frames in a region of interest of at least one frame.

50. The article according to claim 34 , wherein the method further comprises organizing the complementary information in layers of at least one of temporal, spatial, qualitative, transmission rate scalability, or scalability by region of interest.

51. The article according to claim 34 , wherein the method further comprises progressively descrambling the modified digital stream with different levels of at least one of quality, resolution, frame rate, or according to a region of interest via sending a part of the complementary information corresponding to layers of at least one of qualitative, spatial temporal scalability or scalability for a region of interest.

52. The article according to claim 34 , wherein the method further comprises partially descrambling the modified stream according to different levels of at least one of quality, resolution, frame rate, or according to a region of interest via sending a part of the complementary information corresponding to a layer or layers of at least one of qualitative, spatial, temporal scalability or scalability for this region of interest.

53. The article according to claim 34 , wherein the method further comprises synthesizing the digital stream in the digital steam format in the client equipment as a function of the modified digital stream and the complementary information.

54. The article according to claim 34 , wherein the method further comprises realizing transmission of the modified digital stream via a physically distributed material support.

55. The article according to claim 34 , wherein the modified digital stream undergoes operations of at least one of transcoding, rearrangement or extraction of frames or groups of frames during transmission.

56. The article according to claim 34 , wherein the method further comprises realizing transmission of the complementary information via a physically distributed support material.

57. The article according to claim 34 , wherein the wavelets comprise frames including blocks that further include coefficients of wavelets describing visual elements, and

wherein the method further comprises reversibly modifying the wavelet coefficients and further comprising reconstituting a digital stream from the modified digital stream and from the complementary information, wherein the reconstituted digital stream is identical to the digital stream.

58. The article according to claim 34 , wherein the wavelets comprise frames including blocks that further include coefficients of wavelets describing visual elements, and

wherein the method further comprises reversibly modifying the wavelet coefficients and further comprising reconstituting a portion of the digital stream from the modified digital stream and from the complementary information, wherein the reconstituted digital stream is identical to a corresponding portion in the digital stream.

59. The article according to claim 34 , wherein the method further comprises reconstituting a descrambled video stream, wherein the reconstituting is at least controlled or limited in terms of at least one of a predefined frame rate, resolution, transmission rate, or quality as a function of rights of a user.

60. The article according to claim 34 , wherein the method further comprises reconstituting a descrambled video stream, wherein the reconstituting is at least controlled or limited in terms of at least one of predefined frame rate, resolution, transmission rate, or quality as a function of rights of a user.

61. The article according to claim 34 , wherein the method further comprises reconstituting a descrambled video stream, wherein the reconstituting is at least controlled or limited in terms of at least one of predefined frame rate, resolution, transmission rate, or quality as a function of viewing apparatus on which it is visualized.

62. The article according to claim 34 , wherein the method further comprises reconstituting a descrambled video stream, wherein the reconstituting is at least controlled or limited in terms of at least one of predefined frame rate, resolution, transmission rate, or quality as a function of viewing apparatus on which it is visualized.

63. The article according to claim 34 , wherein the method further comprises reconstituting a descrambled video stream in a progressive manner in stages under which reconstitution of the digital stream is achieved.

64. The article according to claim 34 , wherein the method further comprises reconstituting a descrambled video stream in a progressive manner in stages under which reconstitution of the digital stream is achieved.