Patent Application Titled “Cloaking And Watermark Of Non-Coded Information” Published Online (USPTO 20210006812)

2021 JAN 21 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- According to news reporting originating from Washington, D.C., by NewsRx journalists, a patent application by the inventors GUILLAMA, Noel J. (Wellington, FL); HEATH, Chester A. (Boca Raton, FL), filed on July 22, 2020, was made available online on January 7, 2021.

The assignee for this patent application is The Quantum Group Inc. (Lake Worth, Florida, United States).

Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “A particular challenge in the fields of medicine and, indeed, healthcare generally is public acceptance of electronic healthcare records by the general public. Of specific concern to patients specifically, is the security, origin and accuracy of an individual’s records. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, aka ‘HIPPA’ was partly developed to improve the secure portability and continuity of health information in an environment of electronic healthcare records, but it cannot assure security. Like many laws, it specifies particular anticipated abuses and provides penalties for infraction after the fact. In an environment of commonplace identity theft and database intrusion, there evolves a need for making clandestine location of healthcare records difficult, while assuring the accuracy of such data with specific association to individuals and the historical development of such data.”

In addition to obtaining background information on this patent application, NewsRx editors also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent application: “The present invention is primarily directed to systems and methods for integrating health-relevant data from multiple sources and utilizing the integration to develop records of an individual’s wellness, illnesses, or overall state of health. One of many embodiments is the cloaking and/or subliminal watermarking of images. Digital images are comprised of dots, typically referred to as picture elements (PELs) or pixels, where each of the dots can be reduced to a numerical value within organized rows and columns of an image. In some embodiments, data can then be encrypted using changes to these numerical values. In embodiments where additional security is needed for the data, the numerical values can be encrypted, so as to further make examination of the image file difficult. In other embodiments, the data can be encoded into video files addition of additional frames, where the positions of the additional frames indicate a value for each bit of encoded data.

“The above summary is not intended to represent each embodiment or every aspect of the present disclosure. Rather, the foregoing summary merely provides an example of some of the novel aspects and features set forth herein. The above features and advantages, and other features and advantages of the present disclosure, will be readily apparent from the following detailed description of representative embodiments and modes for carrying out the present invention, when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings and the appended claims.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. (canceled)

“2. A method for extracting encoded data from a video stream having a plurality of frames, the method comprising: determining if a first frame of the plurality of frames is identical to a second frame of the plurality of frames, the second frame following consecutively the first frame; determining if the second frame of the plurality of frames is identical to a third frame of the plurality of frames, the third frame following consecutively the second frame; generating a read signal in response to (i) the first frame being identical to the second frame and the second frame not being identical to the third frame, or (ii) the first frame not being identical to the second frame and the second frame being identical to the third frame; in response to the read signal being generated, outputting a first value if the first frame is identical to the second frame; and in response to the read signal being generated, outputting a second value if the second frame is identical to the third frame, wherein the first value and the second value are associated with the encoded data.

“3. The method of claim 2, wherein the first value is 0 and the second value is 1.

“4. The method of claim 2, wherein the second frame is an additional frame in a converted video stream.

“5. The method of claim 4, wherein the video stream is converted from about 24 frame per second to about 30 frame per second.

“6. The method of claim 5, wherein the second frame is a 5.sup.th, 10.sup.th, 15.sup.th, 20.sup.th, 25.sup.th, or 30.sup.th frame in a second of the converted video stream.

“7. The method of claim 2, wherein the encoded data includes copyright information.

“8. The method of claim 2, wherein the encoded data is healthcare information data.

“9. The method of claim 2, wherein the video stream is a digitized analog recording.

“10. The method of claim 9, wherein the digitized analog recording is EKG, EEG, or capnography.

“11. The method of claim 9, wherein the digitized analog recording is non-coded that does not originate in numerical format.

“12. A method for encoding data in a video stream, the method comprising: receiving an initial video stream having a first frame and a second frame that follows consecutively the first frame; and inserting an additional frame between the first frame and the second frame of the initial video stream, the additional frame being identical to either the first frame or the second frame of the initial video stream, thereby converting the initial video stream to an encoded video stream, wherein the additional frame being identical to the first frame is indicative of a first value associated with the encoded data, and the additional frame being identical to the second frame is indicative of a second value associated with the encoded data.

“13. The method of claim 12, wherein the encoded data is associated with a unique identification of the video stream.

“14. The method of claim 12, wherein the initial video stream is about 24 frames per second, and the encoded video stream is about 30 frames per second.

“15. The method of claim 14, wherein the encoded video stream includes six of the additional frames per second.

“16. The method of claim 12, wherein the additional frame is inserted at a frame location of the encoded video stream that is associated with a unique signature that holds significance to a vendor of the initial video stream.

“17. The method of claim 12, wherein the initial video stream is an EKG, an EEG, or a capnography.

“18. The method of claim 12, wherein the encoded data is healthcare information data.

“19. The method of claim 12, wherein the encoded data includes one or more first values and one or more second values together associated with a concealed watermark for the initial video stream.

“20. The method of claim 12, wherein a frame per second of the encoded video stream is a multiple of a frame per second of the initial video stream.

“21. The method of claim 12, wherein either a presence or an absence of the additional frame in the encoded video stream is associated with a portion of the encoded data.”

For more information, see this patent application: GUILLAMA, Noel J.; HEATH, Chester A. Cloaking And Watermark Of Non-Coded Information. Filed July 22, 2020 and posted January 7, 2021. Patent URL: http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=%2220210006812%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20210006812&RS=DN/20210006812

(Our reports deliver fact-based news of research and discoveries from around the world.)