RICHARD ODELL EASON
Pilots at Frst Ave, Orono, ME

6697498, Feb 24, 2004

Feb 2, 2001

09/776172

Eiji Kawaguchi - Fukuoka, JP
Richard Eason - Orono ME
Michiharu Niimi - Kitakyushu, JP

ASA Systems, Inc. - Fukuoka

G06K 900

382100, 358 309, 382162

A method and computer program product for embedding information within an indexed color image such that the existence of the data is not recognizable by the human eye. The method includes the steps of altering color image data, such that it will not cause a large color change in the representing image, and hiding information using an information hiding method. The altering step is accomplished via a color set changing method. The color set changing method involves first decomposing the image in to a set of color component images, embedding data in the color component or components, which the human visual system is most sensitive to, then merging representative colors until the number of representative colors is less than or equal to the target number of colors and reformatting the resulting image into indexed color image format.

6742712, Jun 1, 2004

Jul 23, 2001

09/806653

Eiji Kawaguchi - Fukuoka, JP
Richard Eason - Orono ME
Kunihiro Tsuda - Fukuoka, JP

ASA Systems, Inc. - Fukuoka

G06K 1906

235492, 235380

An information card and card system that eliminates forgery and illegal use of a card. The information card includes a memory that stores information data, which includes one of image data and acoustic data and contains inherent data that is embedded in the information data according to steganographic information hiding. The inherent data is data that authenticates a legitimacy of a card owner of the information card. The information card system include the information card and a data processing terminal for authenticating the owner of the card and/or the authenticity of the card itself.

6473516, Oct 29, 2002

May 21, 1999

09/316883

Eiji Kawaguchi - Fukuoka, JP
Richard O. Eason - Orono ME

ASA Systems, Inc. - Kitakyushu

G06K 900

382100

A technique for hiding information in an image that is based a property of the human vision system. Because of its relation to human vision properties, the technique of the present invention provides an information hiding capacity is as large as 50% of the original image data. The method includes the steps of segmenting each region of a vessel image into informative and noise-like regions by using a threshold value, arranging the data into a series of data blocks, and embedding each data block into the noise-like regions of the image.

2002005, May 2, 2002

Sep 7, 2001

09/949522

Hideki Noda - Munakata-shi, JP
Eiji Kawaguchi - Munakata, JP
Richard Eason - Orono ME, US
Kunihiro Tsuda - Kitakyushu, JP

G06K009/00, G06K009/46

382/100000, 382/240000

Media data such as still image data is subjected to a wavelet transform, and then the wavelet coefficients are quantized. Bit-planes are prepared for the quantized wavelet coefficients. Confidential information is embedded into the bit-planes by using bit-plane decomposition steganography. The modified quantized wavelet coefficients are prepared based on the bit-planes into which the confidential information is embedded. Entropy encoding is performed on the modified quantized wavelet coefficients. As a result, the information is hidden in the media data subjected to progressive compression. On the other hand, entropy decoding is performed on the compressed data, into which the confidential information is embedded, to obtain quantized wavelet coefficients. A bit-plane structure is obtained from the quantized wavelet coefficients, and the hidden information is extracted from the bit-plane structure. In data communication using the compressed data, a third person is not aware of the presence of the hidden information, so that the security thereof can be enhanced. The bit-plane decomposition steganography becomes applicable to compressed data and is improved in the convenience and safety of its utilization.

7231049, Jun 12, 2007

Dec 3, 2002

10/308372

Eiji Kawaguchi - Munakata, Fukuoka 811-3425, JP
Richard Eason - Orono ME, US

H04L 9/00

380277, 380278, 380283, 380 54

An electronic mail system and method in which a message receiver creates an envelope containing envelope media data that is hidden with an embedding-and-extracting key. The message sender acquires the message receiver's envelope and, using an embedding-and-extracting key, embeds a secret message in the acquired envelope media data. The embedded envelope is sent to the message receiver, who extracts the secret message from the received embedded envelope using the same embedding-and-extracting key used to embed the data. As a result a secret message can be sent from the sender to the receiver without being eavesdropped on during the communication.

6978035, Dec 20, 2005

Mar 27, 2001

09/819936

Eiji Kawaguchi - Fukuoka, JP
Richard Eason - Orono ME, US
Kunihiro Tsuda - Nakabaru-Shin-machi, JP

ASA Systems, Inc. - Fukuoka

G06K009/00

382100

An information hiding system that hides information-data in the printing-data according to steganography using an embedding means, and produces printed matter by printing out the printing-data on printable media. A scanner is used to read the data, such as image or pattern data, from the printed matter in order to restore the printing-data. The hidden information-data is then extracted from the restored printing-data using an information-data extracting means. Finally, the information-data is outputted in such a form as an image, musical or voice sound, and/or character letters according to the outputting means.