SBIR Phase I: Authentication of Mobile Video Recordings (MVRs) Based on Real-time Hybrid Digital Watermarking

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is aimed at developing an authentication technology that enables the deployment of a digital Mobile Video Recordings (MVR) system. MVR data are collected daily by a very large fleet of patrol vehicles operated by the law enforcement community across the country that record events involving contact with civilians. Due to staggering costs associated with operating current analog, non-indexing systems, there is an overwhelming need for a computerized digital MVR technology. Its deployment, however, is hindered by legal acceptance, because a digital medium can be easily altered. Authentication plays a critical enabling role by providing an effective means to safeguard the integrity of MVR content. The objective of this research project is to develop a prototype for real-time MVR authentication software, based on a novel, hybrid watermarking algorithm, that integrates seamlessly with existing digital infrastructure. This algorithm is specifically designed to meet stringent operational requirements set forth by next generation MVR system. It achieves progressively varying robustness in one single watermark by means of error-correcting signature coding and rate-distortion guided bit embedding. It combines fragile watermark's ability to localize content tampering and robust watermark's ability to characterize the severity of content alteration. The MVR authentication, envisioned in this SBIR project, provides an enabling technology for the deployment of a digital MVR system for law enforcement agencies across the country that is more effective and much less costly to operate than the current analog system. The company's technology is inspired by and modeled after a set of realistic and specific requirements of the MVR program of the New Jersey (NJ) State Police, and its software-only solution is designed to integrate easily and seamlessly with its digital infrastructure. It provides a secure and economical mechanism for safeguarding MVR content integrity that is minimally invasive to the daily routines of patrol officers and MVR administrators. This NJ State Police and similar agencies across the country can easily adapt this technology so as to realize enormous cost saving through the deployment of a digital MVR system.