I've been pretty busy of late with digital watermarking projects. The new release of DFI 4.0 (Digimarc for Images, with the Chroma upgrade) is going really well and I'll post a video comparing the Classic watermarking more to the new Chroma upgrade in the near future. Be sure to upgrade your plug-ins if you haven't already, there's even one for Elements users.

Our Mobile technology is keeping me on my toes. It generated a lot of interest at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and with so many inquires that it just may have to spring forth fully grown like Athena from Zeus' forehead. OK, the Athenian reference might have been a bit of a stretch, but our work in the mobile realm really is a gee-whiz experience that seems like magic at times. Hopefully you'll experience it in the near future.

Although I've been preoccupied pushing pixels within images, I have been reading some pretty interesting articles... so interesting in fact, that you should keep reading this post!

How many images can you scan in a day, a month, or even a year? Could you scan through one billion images in a year, how about two billion? Well, the Digimarc Search Service constantly crawls the Internet and scans over two billion images a year. That's about 200 million per month. Whenever a Digimarc digitally watermarked image is located, it reports back where and when it was found, along with a thumbnail preview.

All Digimarc for Images customers now have access to see search statistics. They can see numbers on how many images have been scanned and located for all customer images and their own images. You'll even be able to see the your three most recent images found. And if you're a subscriber of Digimarc Search, you'll be able to run unlimited reports about where and when your images were located.

Was getting access to Digimarc Search too expensive in the past? Check back on February 16, 2010; we're making it affordable for everyone.

I've mentioned before I'm not a DSLR kinda guy. It's not that I wouldn't like to be, but my glorified point-and-shoot cameras allow me to love them in a very Zen way. I throw them (literally) into cargo short pockets or daypacks and grab them whenever I want a shot. I'm not too attached when the zoom stops working and I throw them away.

But, this doesn't mean that I don't dream of DSLR toys for creating intense HDR images, portraits for friends or family with almost limitless resolution and 16 bit RAW files. 

Hopefully you've received an email from us or checked out the Digimarc for Images website and saw notices about the 4.0 upgrades; it's something we're really excited about. This upgrade to our embedding software — including the Adobe Photoshop and Photoshop Elements plug-ins — has a new watermarking technology called "Chroma" that we think you're going to like. The account administration area has been refreshed with some nice new features.

So log into you Digimarc account if it’s been awhile, you'll be pleasantly surprised.

After downloading the new plug-ins here, don't forget to upgrade your reader plug-in for Windows Explorer and Internet Explorer while you're at it.

The Digimarc for Images "Best Practices Guide" has been updated as well to help you get the most from the new Chroma embedding. We'll have a technical brief posted on the DFI website shortly. If you don't want to wait, I've included some of the technical brief here to get you started on why we added Chroma embedding...

I'm excited to say that the new website for Digimarc for Images just went live. You can download the new Chroma plug-ins and the free Digimarc Reader for Images now. Check here to see if your software version is supported. All Digimarc for Images customers can also sign In to their accounts and explore the new account management interface and experience the features I mentioned in my previous blog entry. 

Learn more about Digimarc for Images by going here. The redesign includes simple navigation and much more information. Not a customer yet? Email me for a discount coupon at ben.bounketh@digimarc.com. And don't forget, keep coming back to our blog as we'll be releasing details about all the additional new stuff coming to Digimarc for Images very soon.