new lanl patent?

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X-Authentication-Warning: blacklodge.c2.net: majordom set sender to
owner-cryptography@c2.org using -f
From: proff@iq.org
Date: 6 Nov 1997 06:35:37 -0000
To: cryptography@c2.net
Subject: new lanl patent?
Sender: owner-cryptography@c2.net


From: "Jongsma, Ken (NM75)" <ken.jongsma@das.honeywell.com>
Date: 24 Oct 1997 10:32:24 -0600
Subject: Hiding In Plain Sight

from the Oct 20 Aviation Week:

"Researchers at Los ALimos National Laboratory have patented a new
software technique that can hide secret information in the electronic
"noise" associated with the transmission of data and electronic
images.  Called "data embedding," the method allows classified data to
be stored and transferred in open transmissions and can serve as an
"electronic watermark" to prevent unauthorized manipulation of digital
images and other information, according to Ted Handel, project leader.
The software can be used on a desktop personal computer and consumes
only 512 kilobytes of memory, less than most word processing programs.
It is written in "C" computer language which conforms to virtually any
digital storage medium. Overall document length can remain the same."

Aside from the obvious errors in the story, do you suppose that someone
ought to clue the patent office in that steganography has existed for
quite a while now? If anyone would like to research the patent and
report back, it would be interesting to see what is so unique that the
could get a patent on it.

--
ken.jongsma@das.honeywell.com
505 828-5876 Voice
505 828-5500 Fax

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-----------------
Robert Hettinga (rah@shipwright.com), Philodox
e$, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
The e$ Home Page: http://www.shipwright.com/
Ask me about FC98 in Anguilla!: <http://www.fc98.ai/>

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Some interesting hits for "data embedding" on IBM's patent server page...

http://patent.womplex.ibm.com/details?patent_number=5671277
ISSUED: Sep. 23, 1997
FILED:  Oct. 21, 1994
Snip of abstract:  Additional data useful for the management of copies 
of a document for an image forming apparatus is embeddedin a hard 
copy of the document. The additional data is embedded in an inherent 
image of a document as pixels arranged in a prescribed format, and,
preferably, the size of the pixels is such as to not be easily 
recognized with the naked eye. 

http://patent.womplex.ibm.com/details?patent_number=5659726
ISSUED: Aug. 19, 1997
FILED:  Feb. 23, 1995
ABSTRACT:   A method of embedding auxiliary information into a set of host 
data, such as a photograph, television signal, facsimile transmission, or 
identification card. All such host data contain intrinsic noise, allowing 
pixels in the host data which are nearly identical and which have values 
differing by less than the noise value to be manipulated and replaced with 
auxiliary data. As the embedding method does not change the elemental 
values of the host data, the auxiliary data do not noticeably affect the 
appearance or interpretation of the host data. By a substantially reverse 
process, the embedded auxiliary data can be retrieved easily by an 
authorized user. 


The patent office needs a fucking clue server. Hmmm... wonder if I can get a
patent for one?


- ------------------------
Name: amp
E-mail: amp@pobox.com
Date: 11/07/97
Time: 05:33:04
Visit me at http://www.pobox.com/~amp
==
     -export-a-crypto-system-sig -RSA-3-lines-PERL
#!/bin/perl -sp0777i<X+d*lMLa^*lN%0]dsXx++lMlN/dsM0<j]dsj
$/=unpack('H*',$_);$_=`echo 16dio\U$k"SK$/SM$n\EsN0p[lN*1
lK[d2%Sa2/d0$^Ixp"|dc`;s/\W//g;$_=pack('H*',/((..)*)$/)
==

'Drug Trafficking Offense' is the root passphrase to the Constitution.

Have you seen 
http://www.public-action.com/SkyWriter/WacoMuseum
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