Canon's eye-based biometric photo watermarking system hits the Patent Office

Image attribution is big business on this tangled web of ours, but embedding digital watermarks into images is a costly and time-consuming procedure for most photographers -- which is why this Canon patent application is so intriguing. The filing describes a "Registration" mode for digital cameras that embeds biometric data captured from your iris in the image automatically as a watermark -- you simply set yourself as one of up to five users, look into the viewfinder for a moment so the camera can scan your eye, and start taking photos. The system embeds the metadata in batches to avoid slowing the camera down while you're out in the field, and it sounds like the system can be modified to simply generate a verification code instead of a true watermark, preserving image quality. Of course, this is just a patent application, so there's no word on when or where we might see this tech pop up, but you know photographers will be all over this when it finally hits.

[Via Photography Bay, thanks Eric]

[Flashpoint @ Feb 12th 2008 10:34AM]

Taking pictures of the Iris for Biometric archival?

Wouldn't that make it easier to get into a retinal scanner guarded room? I think I saw that on "Ultraviolet". or Star Trek.

[Mehul @ Feb 12th 2008 11:20AM]

About time somebody came up with something like this. Good job Canon.

[Jason @ Feb 12th 2008 11:23AM]

The problem, folks, is that metadata is just data and can be stripped just like any other data. Just like DRM can be stripped from iTunes files, these watermarks can be stripped from images.

In fact you could argue that it would make things worse, since the really nasty folks will swap their own retinal information into the file and then claim ownership.

It's just a patent though.

[Blecch @ Feb 12th 2008 11:42AM]

Of course Canon will have to start making cameras with viewfinders again.

[Zal @ Feb 12th 2008 12:08PM]

This technology would presumably only be implemented in Canon's professional cameras (i.e., the 1D and 1Ds series of DSLRs), which have always had viewfinders and always will.

[Mitch @ Feb 12th 2008 2:08PM]

@jason.. the story says "embeds biometric data captured from your iris in the image automatically as a watermark" - i would understand that to mean it is part of the image (tho hopefully invisible - like the data that people are embedding inside images now)... so it wouldn't be in the metadata and wouldn't be easily stripped out. That's the way i'd do it at least :)

[dougpy @ Feb 12th 2008 2:21PM]

What viewfinder?

[softdev @ Feb 12th 2008 8:20PM]

I love the quality of canon cameras...http://www.kanati.com.ph

[I LOVE THE CAPS LOCK KEY @ Feb 13th 2008 12:46AM]

There has been talk for a while of using an iris fingerprint as a means of personal identification at banks, credit cards, ATMs, checkpoints, etc; I see this as another way someone can take advantage and steal the Identity of someone's iris and use it against them. Posing a photograph on the web with your eye-print as a watermark could be the same as using your SSN as a watermark and may turn out to be a not so bright idea after all.

(But the technology is cool anyways. Good try Canon!)

[Sydney @ Mar 5th 2008 8:15AM]

I wish i could get a watermark utility that is good with batch work. And yes i dont have much money to buy expensive PE software. Perhaps Canon, Nikon or some kind digital makers will give us this ... even it is restricted to the RAW date i would thank them!