EP1300015A1

EP1300015A1 - Broadcasted scrambling and descrambling systems and methods

Info

Publication number: EP1300015A1
Application number: EP01948510A
Authority: EP
Inventors: James J. Carides; James T. Pittman; Cynthnia L. Thompson; Charles Henry
Original assignee: Quebecor World USA Inc
Current assignee: Quebecor World USA Inc
Priority date: 2000-07-07
Filing date: 2001-06-20
Publication date: 2003-04-09
Also published as: AU2001269946A1; CA2415373A1; WO2002005556A1

Abstract

The invention includes an interactive Internet, television or media scrambler and decoding mechanism. A fixed or variable encrypted image is printed onto a clear or translucent film and is placed in front of a broadcasted descrambler to decode the hidden image. An oscillating, zooming image is projected on the monitor or television screen, which aligns in proper phase with the scrambled image, thereby disclosing the hidden image. The scrambled image and descrambler can also be reversed to maintain control of the hidden image at the website or television transmission site. Conventional inks may be used with sufficient scuff resistance to create the printed image, or a primer may be applied for added protection. The oscillating, zooming image provides a means for uniformity between equipment, processors, software and browsers.

Description

BROADCASTED SCRAMBLING AND DESCRAMBLING SYSTEMS AND METHODS

FIELD OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to the scrambling and unscrambling of images, and more particularly to products and methods for unscrambling encrypted images using electronically broadcasted descramblers.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Various scrambling techniques have been devised for encrypting information and images printed on a medium so that they cannot be read by unauthorized individuals. There are numerous ways to create a substrate which carries a hidden image; all of these techniques could be used to create a game piece with a hidden image.

In some merchandising schemes a hidden image is present on a substrate and can be read only after a coating is removed, for example, by scratching the coating off the substrate exposing the hidden image. In other types of schemes, hidden images on a substrate appear only after a chemical solution is applied to the substrate or after a reaction occurs when the substrate is subjected to artificial or natural light. Hidden images can also be made to appear only after the substrate is subjected to a significant temperature change or when the encrypted image is observed in special kind of light. Yet other images are made visible only when viewed through special optics.

Unfortunately, the above described methods for displaying encrypted images do not work well if the descrambler or encrypted image is electronically broadcasted. For instance, a coating cannot be placed over an image broadcasted over the Internet or onto a television screen. Nor could an electronically broadcasted image be subjected to chemicals. In effect, the above mentioned techniques do not work favorably with descramblers or hidden images that are electronically broadcasted either on a television or over the Internet.

One method for applying and reading hidden images using a television or computer is described in U.S. Patent No. 5,984,367 to Bamhart et al. Bamhart describes a particular technique for scrambling information or images involving printing a hidden image on a translucent substrate that is sensitive to additive light. A first pattern of colored ink is deposited in a transparent or translucent substrate, thus forming the image to be hidden. A second pattern of colored ink, generally of a different color, is deposited together with a dull coating on top of the first pattern. When the substrate is exposed to additive light having the same color as the second pattern's ink, the previously concealed image becomes viewable. Barnhart alleges that the scrambling process described is effective in forcing users to visit various websites in order to descramble the message, thereby increasing the number of visitors to the website. However, the Barnhart scrambling and descrambling method is subject to several disadvantages. First, a user can circumvent the need to visit the website or watch the associated television programming that is necessary for decoding the image by shining the proper colored light source on the substrate to disclose the hidden image. Second, every computer monitor and television set differs in image quality and color. For example, what might be viewed as bright blue on one monitor may appear green-blue on another monitor. In addition, televisions also display colors differently with different intensities. Finally, every user perceives colors differently and may set the color controls differently on the television or monitor causing the descrambler to be displayed in the wrong color. Thus, the hidden image may be distorted if the additive light source is not reproduced with the proper hue or intensity. Consequently, descramblers that rely on color schemes may not operate properly when broadcasted onto a monitor or television.

Another technique for producing a scrambled image involves suppressing from view some of the area of an image. The image is typically suppressed from view in an ordered manner, such as along a series of parallel, evenly-spaced stripes. For convenience, the series of parallel, evenly-spaced stripes, or other manner in which the image is suppressed, is referred to herein as a "base image." Because the image often can still be discerned even though part of it has been suppressed, extraneous and meaningless imagery is printed onto the image and the base image and also in the background of the image. The extraneous and meaningless imagery thereby confuses and scrambles the image, rendering it unintelligible. A mask may be created from the base image. The mask generally takes the form of the base image. Because the bars in the base image were used to scramble the hidden image, the base image will decode the scrambled image. However, the bars of the base image must be aligned in phase with the scrambled image in order to decode the image. Furthermore, the width of the bars and the width of the clear space between the bars must have the proper spacing to decode the image without distortion.

As explained above the spacing of the bars and the alignment of the base image are imperative to properly descramble the hidden image. Unfortunately, computers vary in the way they interpret and display data. In addition, the displayed image can also be distorted due to the monitor's resolution, the type of software used to produce the base image and also because of the hardware used to display the image. For example, televisions vary in color, resolution and image quality. Also, a monitor's resolution can effect the spacing of the bars as well as the width of the opaque and clear bars causing the hidden image to be distorted and potentially unreadable. Thus, a need exists for a descrambling mechanism that forces a game participant to use the decoder displayed on a television, website or other communication display medium, in effect forcing the participant either to watch the television programming associated with the game or to visit the website necessary for decoding the game piece. In addition, the descrambler must overcome any distortion caused by the software or hardware used to broadcast and display the image.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

This invention overcomes the above mentioned disadvantages by providing descramblers that oscillate and zoom while being displayed. The invention includes an interactive Internet, television or media scrambler and decoding mechanism. A fixed or variable encrypted image is printed onto a clear or translucent film and is placed in front of a broadcasted descrambler to decode the hidden image. An oscillating, zooming image is projected on the monitor or television screen, which aligns in proper phase with the scrambled image, thereby disclosing the hidden image. The scrambled image and descrambler can also be reversed to maintain control of the hidden image at the website or television transmission site. Conventional inks may be used with sufficient scuff resistance to create the printed image, or a primer may be applied for added protection. The oscillating, zooming image provides a means for uniformity between equipment, processors, software and browsers. The present invention seeks to accomplish one, multiple or combinations of the following objectives:

• to provide a novel means of decoding a scrambled image;

• to provide novel uses for encryption techniques;

• to provide greater resolution of unscrambled images; • to provide a uniform scrambled image that is compatible with differing equipment, processors, software or browsers; and

• to provide a uniform descrambler that is compatible with differing equipment, processors, software or browsers.

Further objects and advantages will become apparent from the following description, the accompanying drawings and the claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of a transparent substrate onto which has been printed a scrambled image shown in FIG. 6. FIG. 2 is an exemplary image capable of being scrambled by a bar encryption.

FIG. 3 is a top plan view of a base image used to scramble images by the bar encryption technique discussed herein.

FIG. 4 is a top plan view of the exemplary image of FIG. 2 over which the base image of FIG. 3 has been laid. FIG. 5 is a top plan view of the image of FIG. 4 partly scrambled by phase transition of part of the base image.

FIG. 6 is a top plan view of the image of FIG. 5 fully scrambled by the addition of clear and opaque pixels.

FIG. 7 shows a block diagram of a system for broadcasting the descrambler of FIG 8. FIG. 8 shows a static view of the exemplary oscillating zooming descrambler of the present invention used to descramble the scrambled image of FIG 6.

FIG. 9 is a static view of the descrambler of FIG. 8 zoomed to an intermediate size. FIG. 10 is a view of the descrambler of FIG. 8 zoomed to the smallest size.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The encryption technique of the present invention for encoding images can take many forms, several of which are described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,952,080 to Avakian et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,621,589 to Jones et al, U.S. Pat. No. 3,279,095 to Carlson, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,227,474 to Hoeflinger. For simplicity, the disclosure of each of the foregoing patents is hereby incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein. In addition, U.S. Pat. No. 5,863,075 to Rich et al. describes a bar encryption technique and is hereby incorporated by reference. Figures one through six of Rich et al. have been reproduced herein as Figures one through six.

FIG. 1 discloses an exploded view of an encrypted message 16 including a scrambled image 14 printed on a substrate 18. Scrambled image 14 may be prepared according to the process depicted in FIGS. 2-6, by what is referred to herein as "bar encryption." In electronic bar encryption an image to be scrambled, such as image 2, exemplified in FIG. 2, is first digitally encoded into a suitable medium such as a computer. Once encoded, a computer program manipulates the digital image to hide or suppress electronically a portion of image 2 behind a base image, such as the bar base image 4 exemplified in FIG. 3, comprising a series of parallel opaque bars 5 separated by a series of transparent vertical columns 6. The series of opaque bars 5 and the series of transparent vertical columns 6 each comprises a plurality of bars and columns of similar widths. However, a plurality of bars of differing widths can also be used as the bar base image. Additionally, for example, concentric opaque rings, opaque triangles or almost any other base image configuration can be used. A partially hidden image 8, that is obtained after image 2 has been hidden or suppressed by the bar base image 4, is shown in FIG. 4. Once image 2 has been partially hidden by opaque bars 5 to obtain the partially hidden image 8, opaque bars 5 and the portion of image 2 suppressed by them are manipulated electronically to effect a partial phase transition. In the partial phase transition, opaque bars 5 and the portion of image 2 suppressed by them are made transparent in the area over which the bars suppress image 2. A partially scrambled image 9 that is obtained upon the phase transition is shown in FIG. 5.

After the partially hidden image 8 has been scrambled by the phase transition, image 2 is further scrambled by the electronic addition, typically randomly or pseudo- randomly, of clear pixels and opaque pixels in opaque 5 and clear 6 regions, respectively, of partially scrambled image 9. Scrambled image 14 thus obtained is illustrated in FIG. 6. Some of the clear and opaque pixels can subsequently be removed electronically from scrambled image 14 to improve the visibility of image 2 when it is subsequently descrambled. As shown in FIG. 1, scrambled image 14 can thereafter be printed onto transparent substrate 18 to create a hidden image that can be held up to a monitor or television for descrambling.

FIG. 7 shows a system for broadcasting the invention to television viewers and Internet surfers. Broadcast system 30 transmits descrambler 20 of FIG. 8 over a communication channel 31, for example, over cable, airwaves, optics, the Internet, etc. descrambler 20 can be received and displayed on a computer 32 or television 33 or any other type of display mechanism. If descrambler 20 is being displayed over the Internet, descrambler 20 may be displayed with each request or may be transferred to resident memory in computer 32. In addition, in the preferred embodiment, descrambler 20 may be displayed using an Java applet.

FIGS. 8 through 10 disclose an exemplary electronic descrambler 20 used to descramble scrambled image 14. Because descrambler 20 contains parallel opaque bars and clear vertical columns that are, at times, configured, sized, and spaced identically to opaque bars 5 and clear vertical columns 6 of base image 4 from which scrambled image 14 was scrambled, descrambler 20 can be used to decode scrambled image 14. It must be understood that if the bars of descrambler 20 are displayed vertically as shown in FIGS. 8 through 10, then the base image used to encrypt the message must also be aligned vertically for descrambler 20 to decipher the message. Conversely, if the base image is arranged such that the bars are configured in the horizontal direction when scrambling the image, then descrambler 20 must be configured such that the bars are displayed in the horizontal direction. In the preferred embodiment, the bars are aligned horizontally. A person can decode scrambled image 14 simply by holding the encrypted image

16 to a television or monitor that is displaying descrambler 20. However, as seen in FIGS. 8 through 10, to overcome distortion caused by display differences in monitors and televisions due to such things as, for example, resolution differences, transmission interference, and software and hardware differences used to display descrambler 20, descrambler 20 continuously zooms in and out, for example over a range of 100% to 400% of the image size. For example, FIG. 8 shows descrambler 20 at the smallest zoom position. FIG. 9 shows an intermediate zoom position and FIG. 10 shows the largest zoom position. Although the figures depict discrete zoom positions, during operation the zoom effect is continuous and covers intermediate positions between the discrete points disclosed in FIGS. 8 through 10.

The zooming effect enables descrambler 20 to be displayed with any type of hardware or software and still operate properly by aligning at times in proper phase with the encrypted image. If descrambler 20 did not contain the zooming effect descrambler 20 may not operate to properly descramble encrypted image 16 from different display types because the bars may not align in the correct phase. The zooming effect continuously changes the spacing between opaque bars 5 and also the width of opaque bars 5 causing them to align in proper phase at some point during the continuous zooming effect. In the preferred embodiment, the zooming effect is continuous in the expanding and contracting direction. However, descrambler 20 can be made to continuously zoom from small to large and return to small in one discrete step.

Descrambler 20 may also be formed using bars of differing widths. In this configuration, only certain portions of encrypted image 16 would properly align with descrambler 20 provided that the bar width is equal to the width used to scramble the image. Therefore, in order to cause the whole image to appear descrambled at one point in time, the zooming effect must occur at a sufficient speed to cause the whole message to appear descrambled at one time.

In another embodiment, several images can be scrambled in one game piece using different base images. Such a game piece allows for animated messages. For example, if each successive encrypted message uses a different zoom position to descramble the image, then as descrambler 20 enlarges in size a different image is unscrambled causing the image to be animated. In this embodiment, descrambler 20 would zoom out continuously and return to the smallest zoomed size in one discrete step. Otherwise, as descrambler 20 returned to the smallest size, it would decode the images backwards causing the message to be animated in reverse. For example, each word of the message "You Have Won $500" would successively be descrambled as descrambler 20 zooms out causing the descrambler to align in phase with each part of the encrypted message.

In addition to the zoom effect, opaque bars 5 and transparent vertical columns 6 oscillate during the zooming effect. More specifically, to cause the oscillating effect, each opaque 5 and clear bar 6 are displayed in three positions, each with a half bar offset from the prior position causing the overall image to oscillate. The oscillating effect can be carried out in several ways. First, at each discreet zoom point, the bars can oscillate through three positions before moving to the next discreet zoom position. Alternatively, as descrambler 20 zooms from one discrete zoom position to the next, each bar would increment one oscillation position. Thus, in the second embodiment, one complete oscillation cycle occurs over three discrete zoom positions.

The oscillating effect provides the viewer with a longer viewing time and helps to animate the descrambled image. The oscillating effect also allows the encrypted message to align properly without forcing the user to adjust the image as it is held up to the display. Thus, the zooming and oscillating effect overcomes the distortion caused by the variety of hardware and software used to display descrambler 20.

The scrambling technique disclosed herein can be practiced either manually or electronically. The technique can be practiced manually, for example, by physically erasing portions of a printed image and physically printing the meaningless background information to the figure. The technique can also be practiced by photographic or other means whereby images are superimposed onto one another to create the scrambled image. The technique further can be practiced electronically by programmed manipulation, suppression, and superimposition of digitized images of the meaningful scrambled image and the meaningless background imagery. Additionally, the descrambler can take the form of various base images. For example, the scrambler may have concentric triangles, circles or almost any other base image configuration. Furthermore, the scrambled image and descrambler can be switched in that the encrypted image is broadcast with a zooming oscillating effect and the descrambler is printed on a clear substrate. The foregoing is provided for purposes of illustrating, explaining, and describing embodiments of the present invention. Modifications and adaptations to the embodiments will be apparent to those skilled in the art and may be made without departing from the scope and spirit of this invention.

Claims

What we claim: 1. An electronically broadcasted descrambler, comprising: a) a plurality of opaque bars; b) a plurality of non-opaque bars separating the opaque bars; and c) a means for changing the width of the opaque bars and the width of the non-opaque bars separating the opaque bars.

2. The electronically broadcasted descrambler of claim 1, further comprising a means for offsetting the non-opaque and opaque bars by an equal distance.

3. The electronically broadcasted descrambler of claim 2, wherein the offset distance is equal to one-half the width of a bar.

4. The electronically broadcasted descrambler of claim 1 , wherein the means for changing the width of the opaque bars and the width of the non-opaque bars separating the opaque bars is continuous in an expanding and contracting direction.

5. The electronically broadcasted descrambler of claim 1, wherein the means for changing the width of the opaque bars and the width of the non-opaque bars separating the opaque bars is continuous only in an expanding direction.

6. An electronically broadcasted descrambler, comprising: a) a base image that was used to scramble a message, the base image comprising opaque and non-opaque areas; and b) a means for causing the base image to expand and contract.

7. The electronically broadcasted descrambler of claim 6, further comprising a means for oscillating the base image by offsetting the opaque and non-opaque areas by an equal distance.