Watermarks in video signals or the accompanying audio track are used to
associate video objects in a video sequence with object specific actions or information.
A video object refers to a spatial and temporal portion of a video signal that
depicts a recognizable object, such as a character, prop, graphic, etc. Each frame
of a video signal may have one or more video objects. The auxiliary information
is embedded in video or audio signals using "steganographic" methods, such as digital
watermarks. By encoding object specific information into video or an accompanying
audio track, the watermarks transform video objects into "watermark enabled" video
objects that provide information, actions or links to additional information or
actions during playback of a video or audio-visual program. A similar concept may
be applied to audio objects, i.e. portions of audio that are attributable to a
particular speaker, character, instrument, artist, etc.