US6804379B2
Expired / Lapsed
US
⏱️ 0.0 years remaining
Digital watermarks and postage
Assignee: Digimarc Corp
•
Filing: 2001-08-24
•
Granted: 2004-10-12
•
Expires: 2021-08-24
Abstract
Abstract Postal stamps are steganographically encoded with plural bit data. This data can represent information such as value, or zip code. Or it can serve as a pointer to a remote data repository, where additional information is stored.
Inventors
- 👤 Geoffrey B. Rhoads
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
US
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-11-09 12:11
CPC Classifications
G; G07; G07F; G07F17/00; G07F17/16; G06; G06V; G06V10/00; G06V10/88; B; B42; B42D; B42D25/00; B42D25/20; B42D25/29; G06Q; G06Q20/00; G06Q20/30; G06Q20/34; G06Q20/341; G06Q20/38; G06Q20/40; G06Q20/401; G06Q20/4014; G06Q20/40145; G06T; G06T1/00; G06T1/0021; G06T1/005; G06T1/0064; G06V30/00; G06V30/40; G07C; G07C9/00; G07C9/20; G07C9/22; G07C9/25; G07C9/253; G07D; G07D7/00; G07D7/003; G07D7/0032; G07D7/0034; G07D7/004; G07F7/00; G07F7/08; G07F7/086; G07F7/10; G07F7/1008; G07F7/1016; G07F7/12; G10; G10L; G10L19/00; G10L19/018; G11; G11B; G11B20/00; G11B20/00086; G11B20/00094; G11B20/00166; G11B20/0021; G11B20/00217; G11B20/00224; G11B20/00485; G11B20/00557; G11B20/00855; G11B20/00884; G11B20/00891; H; H04; H04B; H04B1/00; H04B1/66; H04B1/665; H04N; H04N1/00; H04N1/00002; H04N1/00005; H04N1/00026; H04N1/00037; H04N1/00071; H04N1/00074; H04N1/00079; H04N1/00838; H04N1/0084; H04N1/00843; H04N1/00846; H04N1/00856; H04N1/00864; H04N1/00867; H04N1/0087; H04N1/00875; H04N1/32; H04N1/32101; H04N1/32144; H04N1/32149; H04N1/32203; H04N1/32208; H04N1/32219; H04N1/32251; H04N1/32261; H04N1/32288; H04N1/32304; H04N1/32352; H04N21/00; H04N21/20; H04N21/23; H04N21/238; H04N21/2389; H04N21/23892; H04N21/80; H04N21/83; H04N21/835; H04N21/8358; H04N5/00; H04N5/76; H04N5/91; H04N5/913; B29; B29C; B29C45/00; B29C45/14; B29C45/1418; G06T2201/00; G06T2201/005; G06T2201/0051; G06T2201/0052; G06T2201/0061; G06T2201/0065; G11B20/00876; H04N1/32106; H04N1/32122; H04N2005/91307; H04N2005/91321; H04N2005/91335; H04N2201/00; H04N2201/32; H04N2201/3201; H04N2201/3204; H04N2201/3205; H04N2201/3207; H04N2201/3225; H04N2201/3226; H04N2201/3233; H04N2201/3239; H04N2201/3269; H04N2201/327; H04N2201/3271; H04N2201/3274; H04N2201/328; Y; Y10; Y10S; Y10S428/00; Y10S428/916; Y10T; Y10T428/00; Y10T428/24; Y10T428/24802
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 36
Claim 1
Independent Claim
37 words
A postal stamp representing postage value, the stamp having a front side presenting human-perceivable indicia, and having a rear side provided with adhesive, the stamp having plural bits of auxiliary data steganographically encoded in said human-perceivable indicia.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
37 words
A postal stamp representing postage value, the stamp having a front side presenting human-perceivable indicia, and having a rear side provided with adhesive, the stamp having plural bits of auxiliary data steganographically encoded in said human-perceivable indicia.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
43 words
The postal stamp of claim 1 in which the steganographic encoding is manifested in printing of the front side of the stamp, and can be sensed from scan data produced by scanning the stamp with visible light and sampling visible light reflected thereby.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
18 words
The postal stamp of claim 1 in which the auxiliary data represents a postal value of the stamp.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
15 words
The postal stamp of claim 1 in which the auxiliary data represents a zip code.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
18 words
The postal stamp of claim 4 in which the auxiliary data represents a zip code of a recipient.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
25 words
The postal stamp of claim 1 having a graphic comprised of plural pixels, wherein the steganographic encoding affects the luminance of certain of said pixels.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
24 words
The postal stamp of claim 1 in which the steganographic encoding is manifested in an auxiliary layer that is laminated to a base substrate.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
28 words
The postal stamp of claim 1 in which the auxiliary data comprises a pointer or an index to a collection of data in which additional information is stored.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
22 words
The postal stamp of claim 8 in which the auxiliary data comprises a pointer to a particular record in a remote database.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
22 words
The postal stamp of claim 1 in which the auxiliary data is encoded in a two-dimensional grid array comprising plural rectangular tiles.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
32 words
The postal stamp of claim 1 in which the steganographic encoding can be decoded from scan data produced by scanning the stamp with visible light, and sampling the visible light reflected thereby.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim
27 words
A postal stamp representing postage value and having plural bits of auxiliary data steganographically encoded therein, wherein the steganographic encoding is manifested in texture of the stamp.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim
27 words
A postal stamp representing postage value and having plural bits of auxiliary data steganographically encoded therein, wherein the steganographic encoding is manifested in texture of the stamp.
Claim 15
Dependent Claim
27 words
A postal stamp representing postage value and having plural bits of auxiliary data steganographically encoded therein, wherein the steganographic encoding comprises a 128 by 128 element array.
Claim 16
Dependent Claim
27 words
A postal stamp representing postage value and having plural bits of auxiliary data steganographically encoded therein, wherein the steganographic encoding comprises a 128 by 128 element array.
Claim 17
Independent Claim
62 words
A method of producing a postal stamp having postage value, comprising: providing a graphic represented in digital form; steganographically encoding the graphic to redundantly embed plural bits of auxiliary data therein; and printing the graphic on a substrate, the printed graphic serving as postage; wherein the redundancy permits recovery of all of said bits notwithstanding at least certain corruptions of the encoding.
Claim 18
Independent Claim
62 words
A method of producing a postal stamp having postage value, comprising: providing a graphic represented in digital form; steganographically encoding the graphic to redundantly embed plural bits of auxiliary data therein; and printing the graphic on a substrate, the printed graphic serving as postage; wherein the redundancy permits recovery of all of said bits notwithstanding at least certain corruptions of the encoding.
Claim 19
Dependent Claim
14 words
The method of claim 14 in which the auxiliary data represents a postal value.
Claim 20
Dependent Claim
14 words
The method of claim 14 in which the auxiliary data represents a zip code.
Claim 21
Dependent Claim
17 words
The method of claim 16 in which the auxiliary data represents a zip code of a recipient.
Claim 22
Dependent Claim
24 words
The method of claim 14 in which the graphic comprises plural pixels, and the steganographic encoding affects the luminance of certain of said pixels.
Claim 23
Dependent Claim
27 words
The method of claim 14 in which the auxiliary data comprises a pointer or an index to a collection of data in which additional information is stored.
Claim 24
Dependent Claim
21 words
The method of claim 14 in which the auxiliary data comprises a pointer to a particular record in a remote database.
Claim 25
Dependent Claim
21 words
The method of claim 20 , further comprising establishing an electronic link to said database and obtaining data from said record.
Claim 26
Dependent Claim
21 words
The method of claim 14 in which the auxiliary data is encoded in a two-dimensional grid array comprising plural rectangular tiles.
Claim 27
Dependent Claim
32 words
The method of claim 14 in which the steganographic encoding can be decoded from scan data produced by scanning the printed graphic with visible light, and sampling the visible light reflected thereby.
Claim 28
Independent Claim
54 words
A method of producing a postal stamp having postage value, comprising: providing a graphic represented in digital form; steganographically encoding the graphic to embed plural bits of auxiliary data therein; and printing the graphic on a substrate, the printed graphic serving as postage; wherein the steganographic encoding comprises a 128 by 128 element array.
Claim 29
Independent Claim
54 words
A method of producing a postal stamp having postage value, comprising: providing a graphic represented in digital form; steganographically encoding the graphic to embed plural bits of auxiliary data therein; and printing the graphic on a substrate, the printed graphic serving as postage; wherein the steganographic encoding comprises a 128 by 128 element array.
Claim 30
Independent Claim
51 words
A method comprising: producing optical scan data by scanning a postal stamp with visible light and sensing visible light reflected thereby, the postal stamp having postage value; steganographically decoding plural bits of auxiliary data from said postal stamp; and controlling some aspect of an apparatus in accordance with the decoded data.
Claim 31
Independent Claim
51 words
A method comprising: producing optical scan data by scanning a postal stamp with visible light and sensing visible light reflected thereby, the postal stamp having postage value; steganographically decoding plural bits of auxiliary data from said postal stamp; and controlling some aspect of an apparatus in accordance with the decoded data.
Claim 32
Dependent Claim
35 words
The method of claim 25 in which the plural bits comprise address information, and the method further includes establishing an electronic link to an address related to said address information and obtaining data-from said address.
Claim 33
Independent Claim
64 words
A method comprising: producing optical scan data by scanning a postal stamp with visible light and sensing visible light reflected thereby, the postal stamp having postage value; steganographically decoding plural bits of auxiliary data from said postal stamp notwithstanding skewed scanning of the postal stamp, relative to a normal orientation thereof, and controlling some aspect of an apparatus in accordance with the decoded data.
Claim 34
Independent Claim
64 words
A method comprising: producing optical scan data by scanning a postal stamp with visible light and sensing visible light reflected thereby, the postal stamp having postage value; steganographically decoding plural bits of auxiliary data from said postal stamp notwithstanding skewed scanning of the postal stamp, relative to a normal orientation thereof, and controlling some aspect of an apparatus in accordance with the decoded data.
Claim 35
Independent Claim
64 words
A method comprising: producing optical scan data by scanning a postal stamp with visible light and sensing visible light reflected thereby, the postal stamp having postage value; steganographically decoding plural bits of auxiliary data from said postal stamp; and controlling some aspect of an apparatus in accordance with the decoded data; wherein the steganographic decoding includes performing a domain transformation on the scan data.
Claim 36
Independent Claim
64 words
A method comprising: producing optical scan data by scanning a postal stamp with visible light and sensing visible light reflected thereby, the postal stamp having postage value; steganographically decoding plural bits of auxiliary data from said postal stamp; and controlling some aspect of an apparatus in accordance with the decoded data; wherein the steganographic decoding includes performing a domain transformation on the scan data.
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USPTO Annuity & Maintenance Windows
| Annuity Stage | Window Opens | Payment Deadline | Surcharge Period Until | Estimated Fee | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3.5 Years (Year 4) | 2007-10-12 | 2008-04-12 | 2008-10-12 | $2000.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |
| 7.5 Years (Year 8) | 2011-10-12 | 2012-04-12 | 2012-10-12 | $3760.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |
| 11.5 Years (Year 12) | 2015-10-12 | 2016-04-12 | 2016-10-12 | $7700.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |