Digital Watermarking Glossary Available On Sarnoff Web Site.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

PRINCETON, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 30, 2003

Lists, Defines Terms in Rapidly Developing Field; Watermarking

Becoming a Crucial Tool to Protect Rights of Content Owners

A list of 270 technical and conceptual terms related

to digital watermarking, including full definitions for each term and cross-references to related ones, is now available on the Sarnoff Corporation web site at: www.sarnoff.com/products_services/video_vision/digital_watermarking/ glossary/(Due to the length of this URL, it may be necessary to copy and paste this hyperlink into your Internet browser's URL address field.)

Watermarking is a technique for invisibly embedding information in an image or video, as a way to trace ownership, prevent piracy, or track distribution, among other uses.

The on-line watermarking glossary is administered by Dr. Jeffrey Bloom, Technology Leader at Sarnoff and a recognized authority in digital watermarking. It originated in the glossary in Digital Watermarking (San Francisco: Morgan Kauffman Publishers, 2001), a standard text on watermarking techniques co-authored by Dr. Bloom. However, its content represents the views of the international watermarking community as represented by the discussion list at www.watermarkingworld.org/.

"Watermarking is evolving very quickly in response to the need for content protection in the digital age," said Dr. Bloom. "We're providing this glossary as a way for people interested in the field to keep up with the latest developments."

The items defined in the glossary range from general technical terms such as "trellis-coded modulation" to descriptions of specific watermarking strategies ("informed coding") to vocabulary concerning the types of attacks used to disable watermarks ("unauthorized embedding"). According to Dr. Bloom, though the glossary is primarily meant for the use of specialists in the field, its content will be interesting to generalists as well.

The Watermarking Glossary is an ongoing project, according to Dr. Bloom, and will be updated and expanded to keep up with new developments. As glossary administrator he welcomes notices of errors and suggestions for additional definitions, but most suggestions should be made in the context of the on-line discussion group at www.wartermarkingworld.org/. All changes will be implemented only after consensus is reached within that group.

Links to the glossary administrator and to the discussion group are available on the Watermarking Glossary Description page on the Sarnoff web site.

Future plans call for the of data server capabilities to make it possible for others to have a watermarking glossary front end on their own web sites.