Patent ID: 7197157

Claim:
An image sensing apparatus having image sensing means, comprising: selection means for manually selecting one of a plurality of image sensing modes for setting quality of an image to be sensed by the image sensing means; embedding means for embedding information as a watermark in an image; determination means for automatically determining, in accordance with whether or not the image quality corresponding to the manually selected image sensing mode is lower than a predetermined quality, whether to activate said embedding means; and control means for, when said determination means determines that the information is to be embedded, performing control to activate said embedding means to embed the information in currently sensed image data obtained by the image sensing means if said determination means determines that the information is to be embedded, and for performing, when said determination means determines that the information is not to be embedded, control to inactivate said embedding means, wherein said embedding means comprises first embedding means for embedding information as a visible watermark in an image, second embedding means for embedding information as an invisible watermark in an image with priority given to image quality of the image in which the information is to be embedded, and third embedding means for embedding information as an invisible watermark in an image with priority given to robustness of the information to be embedded, and said determination means comprises means for determining one of said first to third embedding means to perform its embedding function when embedding is to be performed.