Robust and Blind Audio Watermarking Algorithm in Dual Domain for Overcoming Synchronization Attacks

Abstract

How to effectively resist synchronization attacks is the most challenging topic in the research of robust watermarking algorithms. A robust and blind audio watermarking algorithm for overcoming synchronization attacks is proposed in dual domain by considering time domain and transform domain. Based on analysing the characteristics of synchronization attacks, an implicit synchronization mechanism (ISM) is developed in the time domain, which can effectively track the appropriate region for embedding and extracting watermarks. The data in this region will be subjected to discrete cosine transform (DCT) and singular value decomposition (SVD) in turn to obtain the eigenvalue that can be utilized to carry watermarks. In order to extract the watermark blindly, the eigenvalue will be quantized. Genetic algorithm (GA) is utilized to optimize the quantization step to balance both transparency and robustness. The experimental results confirm that the proposed algorithm not only withstands various conventional signal processing operations but also resists malicious synchronization attacks, such as time scale modification (TSM), pitch-shifting modification (PSM), jittering, and random cropping. Especially, it can overcome TSM with strength from −30% to +30%, which is much higher than the standard of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) and far superior to the other algorithms in related papers.

Audio Watermarking Algorithm with a Synchronization Mechanism Based on Spectrum Distribution

“…It had strong robustness to synchronization attacks, but its transparency was poor. Wu et al [24] proposed an audio watermarking algorithm with an implicit synchronization mechanism based on SVD and the genetic algorithm (GA).…”

“…In the above introduction about the audio watermarking algorithm, we have known that the robustness of the algorithm is an important performance on the premise of ensuring good audio quality. After analyzing the characteristics of the audio in the time domain and the frequency domain, this paper proposes a robust watermarking algorithm based on spectrum distribution and improves the synchronization mechanism in reference [24].…”

“…(2) Improve the synchronization mechanism in reference [24]. Since most of the audio content is concentrated on the voiced frame, the synchronization mechanism in reference [24] took the single sampling point with the largest amplitude in the voiced frame as the synchronization mark to design a synchronization mechanism.…”

“…(2) Improve the synchronization mechanism in reference [24]. Since most of the audio content is concentrated on the voiced frame, the synchronization mechanism in reference [24] took the single sampling point with the largest amplitude in the voiced frame as the synchronization mark to design a synchronization mechanism. is method sometimes was inaccurate in determining the region where the watermark was located, mainly because the synchronization mark might not be the original sampling point with the largest amplitude after the audio was attacked.…”

“…erefore, it is particularly important to design a synchronization mechanism that can accurately search the location of the watermark in the audio. On the basis of the synchronization mechanism proposed in reference [24], it is improved to make the synchronization mechanism have a better performance. is method takes the small frame with the largest energy in a voiced frame as the synchronization mark and takes the audio data in a fixed region around this mark as the carrier for carrying the watermark.…”