Audio watermarking time-frequency characteristics

In this paper, a novel audio watermarking scheme based on spread spectrum techniques is proposed. This technique embeds a digital watermark within an audio signal using the instantaneous mean frequency (IMF) of the signal. Audio watermarking offers a solution to data piracy and helps to protect the rights of the artists and copyright holders. The proposed content-based algorithm aims to satisfy and maximize both imperceptibility and robustness of the watermark. In addition, the technique uses the short-time Fourier transform of the original audio signal to estimate a weighted IMF of the signal. Based on the masking properties of the psychoacoustic model, the required sound pressure level of the watermark is calculated. Modulation is then performed to produce a signal-dependent watermark that is imperceptible. The proposed method allows 25 bits to be embedded and recovered within a 5 second sample of an audio signal. Experimental results have shown that the scheme is robust to common signal processing attacks including filtering, MP3 compression, additive noise and resampling with a bit error rate in the range of 013%.