IN-CAMERA IMAGE MARKING AND AUTHENTICATION

摘要

A camera (10) with a built in microprocessor system (48) is programmed to receive an input password (72) and indicium from a host computer (12). The camera is configured to use the indicium in combination with a conversion formula to mark an original acquired image (Fig. 14) in a non-destructive manner to form modified image data (Fig. 5-7) and add the indicium to an image header. The camera also creates image authentication data for comparison with corresponding data of a questionable second image to determine if the second image is the same as or different from the original image. This process of marking and creating authentication data all occurs during acquisition and prior to any image data storage in a medium from which a person could subsequently access data. The camera takes the authentication data and stores it along with the marked image data in memory for subsequent transmission to the host computer.