Method and apparatus for embedding data, including watermarks, in human perceptible sounds

A computerized system for hiding hidden data having a plurality of bits within a host data representing human-perceptible sounds comprising:

• a processor;
• a computer-readable medium;
• computer-executable instructions executed by the processor from the computer-readable medium comprising:
• segmenting the host data into a plurality of blocks;
• applying a discrete cosine transform (DCT) to each block of the host data to generate a frequency block corresponding to the block of host data;
• applying a perceptual mask to each frequency block;
• embedding each bit of the hidden data into a corresponding frequency block;
• and,
• applying an inverse DCT to each frequency block to generate the host data having the hidden data embedded therein.

A computer-readable medium having a computer program stored thereon to cause a suitably equipped computer to perform the method comprising:

• segmenting host data representing human-perceptible sounds into a plurality of blocks;
• spreading each of a plurality of bits of hidden data by a signature;
• applying a discrete cosine transform (DCT) to each block of the host data to generate a frequency block corresponding to the block of host data;
• applying a perceptual mask to each frequency block;
• embedding each bit of the hidden data, as spread by the signature, into a corresponding frequency block;
• applying an inverse DCT to each frequency block to generate the host data having the hidden data embedded therein;
• and,
• applying a temporal mask to the host data having the hidden data embedded therein.

A computerized method for generating a watermark to embed into host data representing human-perceptible sounds comprising:

• generating a watermark sequence;
• calculating a masking threshold;
• frequency-domain shaping the watermark sequence utilizing the masking threshold;
• and,
• time-domain weighting the watermark sequence after the watermark sequence has been frequency-domain shaped.

A computerized system for embedding a watermark into host data representing human-perceptible sounds comprising:

• a processor;
• a computer-readable medium;
• a computer-executable instructions executed by the processor from the computer-readable medium comprising:
• low-bit rate coding and decoding the host data;
• generating a first interim watermark on the signal comprising of the host signal minus the low-bit rate coded and decoded host signal;
• generating a second interim watermark comprising of the difference between the low-bit rate coded and decoded host signal minus the watermarked and low-bit rate coded and decoded host signal;
• adding the first interim watermark to the second interim watermark to obtain the watermark;
• and
• adding the watermark to the host data.

A computer-readable medium having a computer program stored thereon to cause a suitably equipped computer to perform the method comprising:

• low-bit rate coding and decoding host data representing a human-perceptible sound;
• generating a first interim watermark on the signal comprising of the host signal minus the low-bit rate coded and decoded host signal;
• generating a second interim watermark comprising of the difference between the low-bit rate coded and decoded host signal minus the watermarked and low-bit rate coded and decoded host signal;
• adding the first interim watermark to the second interim watermark to obtain the watermark;
• and
• adding the watermark to the host data.