By Andrew Liszewski

Canon has filed for a patent they hope will revolutionize digital watermarking when it comes to photographs. Future cameras from the company could have a ‘REG’ setting on the Mode dial that will actually take a photograph of the user’s iris as they look through the viewfinder.

This image, which is as unique as a fingerprint would be added to the photo’s metadata once a series of shots have been captured. If the camera were to write this data to the photo every time the shutter was pressed, it would slow down the camera’s performance and could actually end up hindering the photographer.

While the technique won’t stop people from actually stealing photos, particularly online (case in point) it should provide some solid proof as to who originally took the shot and owns the copyright should there ever be a dispute.

[ Canon’s Iris Registration Mode - Biological Copyright Metadata ] VIA [ Slashdot ]