Abstract: In watermarked signal decoding, the embedded message is decoded by correlating the reference patterns with the watermarked signal. The watermark detector decides, depending on the size of the correlation result values, whether or not a given reference pattern was embedded. However, decoding watermarked audio or video signals is difficult if the link between the watermark encoder and the watermark decoder is not a digital one, for example an acoustic path. A re-sampler control unit controls the sampling frequency of a re-sampler, in connection with a watermark decoder that outputs, in addition to the watermark information bits, a corresponding confidence value that is derived from the correlation result and that is used for synchronizing the re-sampler sampling frequency with the original sampling frequency of the watermarked signal. The synchronization processing includes a search mode and a synchronized mode.

Abstract: For protecting by watermarking against non-authorised use, e.g. non-authorised recording or copying, original audio or video data which are to be presented in a digital cinema, a sender site generates from the original signal at least two differently pre-watermarked versions for successive blocks or frames of the signal, wherein these versions are derived by applying a repeated watermark symbol value to a version and different watermark symbol values to the different versions. The pre-watermarked signal versions are encrypted and transferred e.g. as data files to a digital cinema unit in which they are decrypted. According to the values of a desired watermark information word, corresponding frames or blocks from said decrypted and pre-watermarked versions are assembled in a successive manner, so as to provide and present a watermarked version of said original audio or video signal that carries said watermark information word.

Abstract: Various audio signal watermarking systems are known, which are also applied to digitally encoded audio signals. However, in current audio signal watermarking systems the watermark signal and its watermark payload do not survive very low bit rate audio coding, in particular parametric coding. According to the invention, a watermarked uncompressed audio signal bit-stream is low-bit rate compressed, but the water-marking is removed and the watermark's payload only is transmitted together with the compressed audio signal bit-stream. At decoder side, the received audio signal bit stream is de-compressed and water-marked again using the transmitted watermark payload. Advantageously, it does not matter that the compressed bitstream is not watermarked because the compressed bitstream can be encrypted prior to transmission.

Abstract: Many watermarking systems make use of correlation for calculating a detection metric, which means that several reference patterns are generated at encoder side and one or more of them are embedded inside the content signal, dependent on the message to be embedded. To decode the embedded message, it is necessary to discover which reference pattern was embedded at encoder side by correlating the known reference patterns with the content signal. In the case where watermarked audio is emitted by a loudspeaker and then captured with a microphone, the received signal echoes are used for watermark detection instead of treating them as noise by integrating the correlation values resulting from echoes into the main correlation peak, thereby using correlation result amplitude values located within a predetermined neighborhood of a correlation result peak amplitude value and exceeding a predetermined threshold.

Abstract: Watermarking of audio signals intends to manipulate the audio signal in a way that the changes in the audio content cannot be recognized by the human auditory system. The watermark data are decoded from the received watermarked audio signal by correlation with corresponding candidate reference sequences. One or more of the sync symbols are embedded twice in the watermark data frame in the encoder. Thereafter a circular correlation is calculated instead of a standard correlation.

Abstract: Watermarking of audio signals intends to manipulate the audio signal in a way that the changes in the audio content cannot be recognised by the human auditory system. In order to reduce the audibility of the watermark and to improve the robustness of the watermarking the invention uses phase modification of the audio signal. In the frequency domain, the phase of the audio signal is manipulated by the phase of a reference phase sequence, followed by transform into time domain. Because a change of the audio signal phase over the whole frequency range can be audible, the phase manipulation is carried out with a maximum amount only within one or more small frequency ranges which are located in the higher frequencies and/or in noisy audio signal sections, according to psycho-acoustic principles. Preferably, the allowable amplitude of the phase changes in the remaining frequency ranges is controlled according to psycho-acoustic principles.

Abstract: Watermark information consists of several data symbols which are embedded continuously in an audio or a video signal using modulation with a pseudo-random sequence if spread spectrum technology is used. At decoder site the watermark information is regained using correlation of the received signal with a candidate pseudo-random sequence. Such correlation can be performed by one-dimensional real-symmetric fast Fourier transform of the two input signal vectors, which each consist of a section of N values of the input signal, to which section N?1 zeroes are attached, by multiplying one of the transformed vectors by the conjugated version of the other transformed vector, followed by inverse RFFT transform of that frequency domain product vector. However, if the level of a spread-spectrum watermark is too low or if too much noise had been added during the transmission of the audio or video signals, the correlation does not show a clear peak, which means that the watermark information bits cannot be recovered.

Abstract: Spread spectrum technology is used for watermarking digital audio signals. To retrieve a watermark signal information bit from the spread spectrum at the receiver or decoder side, the received or replayed spectrum is convolved with a spreading function that is time-inverse with respect to the original spreading function. The pseudo noise sequences are modulated on carrier frequencies which are inserted at one or more frequency bands into the spectrum of an audio signal. The watermark signal decoder checks the frequency bands occupied by such carriers. The frequency band occupation information is signaled in advance, i.e. is transmitted already together with the frame data for the current frame, such that the watermark signal decoder knows before processing the following audio signal frame which carrier frequencies are occupied and must be used for the corresponding carrier demodulation, and which carrier frequencies need not be checked and demodulated.

Abstract: Watermarking of audio signals intends to manipulate the audio signal in a way that the changes in the audio content cannot be recognised by the human auditory system. The watermark data are decoded from the received watermarked audio signal by correlation with corresponding candidate reference sequences. One or more of the sync symbols are embedded twice in the watermark data frame in the encoder. Thereafter a circular correlation is calculated instead of a standard correlation.

Abstract: Watermark information (denoted WM) consists of several symbols which are embedded continuously in an audio or a video signal. At decoder site the WM is regained using correlation of the received signal with an m-sequence if Spread Spectrum is used. According to the invention, each WM symbol carries an identification data ID item in addition to its normal payload, and it is already tested in the encoder whether or not the signal is good enough so that the embedded symbol can be recovered at decoder side. If true, it is embedded. If not true, no WM is embedded for the length of one symbol and the test is repeated for the following symbol. The sequence of IDs is known at the encoder which can therefore detect using the ID whether or not a symbol has been skipped.

Abstract: Watermark information consists of several data symbols which are embedded continuously in an audio or a video signal using modulation with a pseudo-random sequence if spread spectrum technology is used. At decoder site the watermark information is regained using correlation of the received signal with a candidate pseudo-random sequence. Such correlation can be performed by one-dimensional real-symmetric fast Fourier transform of the two input signal vectors, which each consist of a section of N values of the input signal, to which section N-1 zeroes are attached, by multiplying one of the transformed vectors by the conjugated version of the other transformed vector, followed by inverse RFFT transform of that frequency domain product vector. However, if the level of a spread-spectrum watermark is too low or if too much noise had been added during the transmission of the audio or video signals, the correlation does not show a clear peak, which means that the watermark information bits cannot be recovered.

Abstract: Watermark information (denoted WM) consists of several symbols which are embedded continuously in an audio or a video signal using spread-spectrum. At decoder site the WM is regained using correlation of the received signal with an resequence. According to the invention, not only is the watermark made audio or video signal level dependent (PAS), but also the spreading sequence used for the watermark is made audio or video signal level dependent. This means that the same WM symbol is encoded by several different spreading sequences (NSS). The encoder tests (DEC), which one of these WM symbols or sequences can be retrieved best in a decoder, and embeds that selected spreading sequence WM in the audio or video signal to be watermarked. At decoder side all candidate WM spreading sequences are correlated with the received signal and the spreading sequence with the best match is chosen as the correct one.

Abstract: Many watermarking systems make use of correlation for calculating a detection metric, which means that reference patterns are generated at encoder side and are embedded inside the audio or video signal, dependent on the message to be embedded. The same reference patterns are generated at decoder side. The embedded message is decoded by correlating the reference patterns with the watermarked signal. The watermark detector decides, depending on the size of the correlation result values, whether or not a given reference pattern was embedded. However, decoding watermarked audio or video signals is difficult if the link between the watermark encoder and the watermark decoder is not a digital one, for example an acoustic path.

Abstract: Many watermarking systems make use of correlation for calculating a detection metric, which means that several reference patterns are generated at encoder side and one or more of them are embedded inside the content signal, dependent on the message to be embedded. To decode the embedded message, it is necessary to discover which reference pattern was embedded at encoder side. This is determined by correlating the known reference patterns with the content signal. A watermark detector decides, depending on the size of the correlation result values, whether or not a given pseudo-random sequence was embedded. However, this does not provide correct decisions if watermarked audio is emitted by a loudspeaker and then captured with a microphone. According to the invention, it is taken advantage of the received signal echoes instead of treating them as noise.

Abstract: Watermarking of audio signals intends to manipulate the audio signal in a way that the changes in the audio content cannot be recognised by the human auditory system. In order to reduce the audibility of the watermark and to improve the robustness of the watermarking the invention uses phase modification of the audio signal. In the frequency domain, the phase of the audio signal is manipulated by the phase of a reference phase sequence, followed by transform into time domain. Because a change of the audio signal phase over the whole frequency range can be audible, the phase manipulation is carried out with a maximum amount only within one or more small frequency ranges which are located in the higher frequencies and/or in noisy audio signal sections, according to psycho-acoustic principles. Preferably, the allowable amplitude of the phase changes in the remaining frequency ranges is controlled according to psycho-acoustic principles.

Abstract: Spread spectrum technology and the related inserted or added information signal can be used for implementing watermarking digital audio signals. A known processing for retrieving at receiver or decoder side the watermark signal information bit from the spread spectrum is convolving the received or replayed spectrum with a spreading function that is time-inverse with respect to the original spreading function. If BPSK modulation was used for applying the spread spectrum function, the output is a peak at the middle of the sequence of correlation values, the sign of such peak representing the value of the desired watermark signal information bit. According to the invention, in order to cope with echo distortions, two or more orthogonal spreading sequences are used at encoder side with the original or encoded audio signal in baseband.

Abstract: Spread spectrum technology and the related inserted or added information signal can be used for implementing watermarking digital audio signals. A known processing for retrieving at receiver or decoder side the watermark signal information bit from the spread spectrum is convolving the received or replayed spectrum with a spreading function that is time-inverse with respect to the original spreading function. The pseudo noise sequences are modulated one or more carrier frequencies which are inserted at one or more frequency bands into the spectrum of an audio signal. The watermark signal decoder checks the frequency bands occupied by such carriers. According to the invention, the frequency band occupation information is signalled in advance, i.e.

Abstract: Watermark information (denoted WM) consists of several symbols which are embedded continuously in an audio or a video signal. At decoder site the WM is regained using correlation of the received signal with an m-sequence if Spread Spectrum is used. In some watermark technology the watermark information is transmitted asynchronously, i.e. it is continuously tested whether or not WM can be embedded imperceptible within the audio or video signals. Only if this is true a WM frame is transmitted. But a WM frame consists of some tens of symbols, each carrying one or more bits which are transmitted synchronously. That means, if the period in which the WM can be embedded is shorter than the frame length, some symbols cannot be recovered at receiver side. According to the invention, each WM symbol carries an ID item in addition to its normal payload, and it is already tested in the encoder whether or not the signal is good enough so that the embedded symbol can be recovered at decoder side. If true, it is embedded.

Abstract: MPEG 1 Audio data compression is based on subband coding. A quantization is performed using a psychoacoustic model which is adapted to the masking behavior of the human hearing. Each subband signal is quantized in such a way that the quantization noise introduced by the coding will not exceed the masking curve for that subband. In ISO/IEC 11172-3 two independent psychoacoustic models are defined. The output from these psychoacoustic models is a set of Signal-to-Masking Ratios, SMRn, for every subband n. In order to calculate the SMRn for the psychoacoustic model 2 according to the invention a Fast Fourier Transformation is performed with a length of L=1152 samples by calculating k subtransformations over 2N samples with k*2N=L and fitting together the results of the k subtransformations.

Abstract: In MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3 following the ‘window_switching_flag’, the corresponding 2-bit value of ‘block_type’ is sent repeatedly although the decoder knows already from the occurrence of the parameter ‘window_switching_flag’ that a sequence of ‘start block’, ‘short windows’, ‘stop block’ and ‘long window’ will follow. Therefore transmitting the changing parameter ‘block_type’ several times is redundant information. According to the invention the superfluous parameter ‘block_type’ flag is not sent for block type signalling purposes. Instead, the two corresponding bits are used for signalling to the decoder differing subband signal window switching configuration types. These configuration types define in which of the total number of subbands used the window switching is affected, or not affected, by above parameter ‘window_switching_flag’.