Tesla has patented systems and methods for employing adaptive video watermarks to provide additional information about photos and videos while driving.
Digital watermarking is a technique for concealing specific data, such as identity data about a digital media stream’s provenance. Watermarks can be inserted in image files or video frames in a way that prevents them from being removed without affecting the underlying content. Data over VBI is no longer used in modern digital television standards, therefore eliminating VBI as a data embedding technique.
Instead, modern digital televisions use a distinct data stream that is interwoven with audio and video data. While this allows for the inclusion of additional data in video signals, the data is unavailable to media devices, restricting the use of watermarks. As a result, new methods for injecting additional information into visual signals are required.
On July 30, 2021, Tesla submitted a patent for “Systems and methods for the application of adaptive video watermarks,” which was published on February 3, 2022. The current invention covers systems and techniques for creating, embedding, and/or decoding digital data code (e.g., watermarks) into a digital image that is undetectable to the naked eye.
Watermarks can be embedded in images or video frames to deliver data and/or executable code to media devices like smart TVs, set-top boxes, mobile devices, laptop computers, tablet PCs, desktop computers, and so on. By altering the pixel values of the top one or two rows of pixels, watermarks can be implanted into video frames. The watermark symbols may be detected and extracted by the media device. The symbols may be processed by a media device’s processing component in order to decode the watermark’s data and/or executable code.
The symbols decoded may provide additional information about the presented video and/or cause the media device to do certain tasks. Additional information may include, but is not limited to, information about the displayed video’s content (e.g., actors, characters, settings, or any other fact or characteristic of the content), metadata about the video (e.g., resolution, pixel values, broadcast origin, etc. ), communications about the video, and so on. A trigger signal at the beginning of a movie, or a portion thereof, may be one of the decoded symbols of the watermark (eg, such as a commercial, etc.)
communications related to the video being broadcast, etc. A trigger signal may be included in the decoded symbols of the watermark at the start of a video or a portion thereof (e.g., a commercial, etc.) to allow a media device to detect the trigger signal and substitute a video segment (e.g., an advertisement, commercial, other video segment, or the like) stored locally in the set-top or smart TV’s memory, or display video information from a remote server. video frames or segments of video frames containing video frames stored locally, video frames decoded in the watermark, or video frames streamed from a remote server.
Embedding a code into a movie to be utilized as a signal to a media device, such as a smart TV or set-top box, is one example of how the systems and techniques described herein can be used. When the data code is received by the client television device, it may cause the client television receiver to substitute a different video segment (e.g., one or more video frames) for the video segment currently being displayed. This procedure is known as “dynamic insertion” or “dynamic ad insertion” when an advertisement is involved.
In real time, a video section may be dynamically replaced with another video segment. For example, if the client device receiver detects one or more frames that are eligible to be replaced (e.g., a watermark in one or more frames), the client device receiver can replace the one or more frames with one or more other frames.
A watermark may be utilized to activate an on-screen pop-up window presenting extra information connected with a shown video frame in another example application of the systems and techniques described herein.
For example, if the shown video frame contains a product, the pop-up window may contain product-related information. If the shown video frame is from a movie or television show, the pop-up window may contain information on the actors in the video frame or in the movie or television show, as well as any other information about the movie or television show.
A universal resource locator (URL) link to a website that offers the extra information and/or allows the user to purchase the product being displayed can be included in the pop-up window. A web browser on the media device may be able to access the website and enable the transaction. A rapid response (QR) code that a user can take with a mobile device can also be included in the pop-up window.
This discovery opens up a wide range of possibilities for improving Tesla vehicles’ capabilities and making their use more convenient for users.
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