Stealthy audio watermarking
US7266697B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | May 3, 2004 |
| Grant date | Sep 4, 2007 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jul 23, 2025 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04N2005/91335
- WIPO fieldAudio-visual technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
Described herein is audio watermarking technology for inserting and detecting watermarks in audio signals, such as a music clip. The watermark identifies the content producer, providing a signature that is embedded in the audio signal and cannot be removed. The watermark is designed to survive all typical kinds of processing and malicious attacks. In one described implementation, a watermarking system employs chess spread-spectrum sequences (i.e., “chess watermarks”) to improve the balance of positive and negative chips in the watermarking sequences. The balance is not imposed in an orderly fashion, which might make the watermark sequence more easily detectable to an attacker, but in a pseudo-random fashion. In that way, better sequence balance is achieved while preserving its randomness for an attacker without knowledge of the keys. In another described implementation, a watermarking system employs an energy-level trigger to determine whether to skip encoding of a portion of a watermark within a given time span of an audio clip. If a large discrepancy in energy levels exists over a given time frame, then the frame is not watermarked, to avoid audible time-dispersion of artifacts d…
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.