Canon Files For DSLR Iris Registration Patent

An anonymous reader writes "Canon has filed for a patent for using iris watermarking (as in the iris of your eye) to take photographer's copyright protection to the next level. You set up the camera to capture an image of your eye through the viewfinder. Once captured, this biological reference is embedded as metadata into every photo you take. Canon claims this will help with copyright infringement of photos online."

Sweet

[geekoid]

Now if I need to break into someplace that use iris biometrics I can just get that from a photo off of Myspace!

hmm..

[bigattichouse]

So does reflecto-porn count as prior art? I mean, if you consider "unique image of the photographer embedded in the photograph" as prior art.

Re:metadata

[gandhi_2]

pfff. oh yeah. right. with some "magical hex editor" or something. keep dreaming.

In the land of the blind...

[VampireByte]

... the one-eyed man is king (but meta tagged).

Re:... whatcouldpossiblygowrong

[rossz]

The first thing I thought of after reading the intro paragraph was, "how is this going to be abused?" And what you suggest was exactly what i was thinking. First the government will require all cameras have this technology embedded in it to save the children from pornographers! Then they'll use it to track down that traitorous bastard commie journalist that took pictures of Senator Greedy and his hooker girlfriend (which were faked!).

Note to self: Get more foil from the supermarket.

if only there were some way to remove metadata

[JeanBaptiste]

like maybe the print screen button

Re:Sweet

[jjeffries]

Yeah, that's awesome, I was getting sick of ripping eyes out with a ballpoint every time I needed to defeat an iris scan... it really screws up the pen!

Re:metadata

[alxbtk]

Sure, and if you convert a CD to MP3 files, then it's totally OK to distribute free copies of said files.

Re:uh

[NotQuiteReal]

What is an illegal picture?

"Think of the children".

Not in that way, you pervert!

Re:uh

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, photographers don't make that much money.

Re:RTFA, it's YOU who jumped the gun...

[Anonymous Coward]

So I can register any eye into the five slots. Here's three : Neighbor's cat, stray dog, brown.