SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR VIRTUAL NODE DISTRIBUTION OF DATA EMBEDDED IN TELEVISION SIGNALS

摘要

A system for distributing data embedded in host television signals (160) to virtual nodes of a cable network (199). The system selects (210) host signals for a virtual node based on associations between those signals and the users who are intended to receive data. Those associations may be predetermined, or may be based on the capacity of a host signal for embedding data or dynamically adjusted based on the supply of, and demand for, data-embedding capacity. Using digital watermarking techniques, the system embeds (220) the data into the selected host signals at the head end of the cable network, thereby generating a set of composite signals that include watermarked versions of host signals. The composite signals are transmitted over the cable network (199) and, at the receiving ends, are accessed by information-extracting demodulators (102A) comprising signal selectors (250A) and information extractors (290A)