Granted Patent B1

US 12,654,374 · App. 18/303,442 · Granted Jun 16, 2026

Inventors: Tomas Filler (Beaverton, OR); Nicholas Anderson (Colorado Springs, CO); Ajith M Kamath (Beaverton, OR)

Assignee: Digimarc Corporation

B29C45/372B23K26/362B65D1/0207B29L2031/7158B65D2203/00

Abstract

Claims (15)

1 . A watermarked image embedded in a physical surface or stored on a non-transitory computer readable medium, previously derived from an original image, the watermarked image having a mean value that is not between 124 and 131, wherein at least one of the following conditions is satisfied:

(a) a gradient between a pair of adjoining pixels in the watermarked image differs, by more than 30, from a gradient between a spatially-corresponding pair of pixels in the original image; or

(b) a pixel value in the watermarked image differs, by more than 64, from a pixel value in the original image;

wherein the watermarked image is structurally different than the original image, with edges having been both added to and removed from the original image.

2 . The watermarked image of claim 1 in which condition (a) is satisfied, and in which a gradient between a pair of adjoining pixels in the watermarked image differs, by more than 50, 80 or 120 from a gradient between a spatially-corresponding pair of pixels in the original image.

3 . The watermarked image of claim 1 in which condition (b) is satisfied, and in which a pixel value in the watermarked image differs, by more than 128 or 192, from a pixel value in the original image.

4 . The watermarked image of claim 1 in which both conditions (a) and (b) are satisfied.

5 . The watermarked image of claim 1 having a mean value that is not between 117 and 139.

6 . The watermarked image of claim 1 in which the watermarked image encodes a plural-symbol payload, said payload being operative, when sensed by a compliant reader component of a system, to control an operation of said system.

7 . The watermarked image of claim 1 in which said numeric parameters are stated in context of an 8-bit representation, but can be adjusted proportionately for use in other bit representations.

8 . The watermarked image of claim 1 in which satisfaction of said condition(s) is not due to shifting of an edge in the original image, or modulation of a line width in the original image.

9 . The watermarked image of claim 1 in which the watermarked image includes interpixel gradients that are stronger, by at least 50, than corresponding interpixel gradients in the original image.

10 . The watermarked image of claim 1 in which the watermarked image is characterized by not being simply composed as a weighted combination of a watermark image and a style image, such that there is no scaled version of the style image that can be subtracted from the watermarked image to leave just a scaled version of a watermark image as residue.

11 . Retail product packaging or container that conveys the watermarked image of claim 1 , in which the watermarked image encodes a plural-symbol payload, said payload being operative, when sensed by a compliant reader component of: (a) a waste sorting system, to control an ejection operation of said waste sorting system, or (b) a retail checkout system, to add a price of said good to a shopper's checkout tally.

12 . A molded item having a surface level that varies in accordance with pixel values of the watermarked image of claim 1 .

Assignments (3)

Continuity (4)

References Cited (140)