Patent ID: 7756289

Claim:
A method of determining a location for a watermark on an image, wherein the image comprises an array of pixels, and wherein each pixel has image information associated therewith, the method comprising: determining a size for the watermark, wherein the size has a pixel height and a pixel width; calculating a region brightness value for each of a plurality of regions of the image, wherein each of the plurality of regions has a pixel height and a pixel width equal to the pixel height and the pixel width of the size of the watermark, wherein each of the plurality of regions comprises a plurality of pixels, and wherein the region brightness value is representative of the image information associated with the plurality of pixels comprised by the region, wherein calculating the region brightness value for each of the plurality of regions of the image comprises: for a watermark of height h and width w, for a first column of pixels, calculating a row brightness value for each pixel in the column, wherein the row brightness value comprises a summation of image information for w contiguous pixels in the row; for a first group of h contiguous pixels in the first column of pixels, calculating a region brightness value by summing the row brightness values for the h contiguous pixels in the first column of pixels; for a second group of h contiguous pixels in the first column of pixels, calculating a region brightness value by adding one row brightness value and subtracting a different row brightness value; for a second column of pixels, calculating a row brightness value for each pixel in the column by adding image information for one pixel and subtracting image information for a different pixel; for a first group of h contiguous pixels in the second column of pixels, calculating a region brightness value by summing the row brightness values for the h contiguous pixels in the second column of pixels; and for a second group of h contiguous pixels in the second column of pixels, calculating a region brightness value by adding one row brightness value and subtracting a different row brightness value; selecting one of the plurality of regions as the location for the watermark, wherein the selection is based, at least in part, on the region brightness value; and rendering the image and watermark on a display device.