Localized & self adaptive audio watermarking algorithm in the wavelet domain

This paper presents an adaptive audio watermarking algorithm in the wavelet domain to optimize the payload under the perceptual transparency constraints of audio signal by strategically using some of its local features. Unlike existing algorithms, the watermark payload in this approach is made adaptive based on the nature of the audio signal. This localized feature based approach to determine the payload addresses the issue of over-loading and under-loading the audio signals with watermark data making the payload optimized for each individual audio host signal. Some audio features are strategically extracted and the most discriminatory features are selected using Principal Component analysis (PCA) approach. A mathematical model is designed using selected audio features like energy, zero cross mean and short time energy to evaluate the degree of embedding under perceptual transparency. It is used to estimate the number of watermarking bits to be inserted for a particular audio signal which makes the approach adaptive in nature optimizing the watermarking payload. At the embedding stage, watermark is embedded in the host audio signal in the third level detailed coefficient of wavelet domain which strikes a balance between the contradicting design parameters of perceptual transparency, robustness and optimized payload. Watermark extraction in this paper is blind with good robustness to signal processing attacks. Experimental results validate that the proposed adaptive algorithm provide good imperceptibility with good robustness against signal processing attacks at adjustable payload for different types of audio signals. Comparative analysis indicates that this proposed adaptive algorithm has better performance in terms of imperceptibility and robustness in comparison to uniform watermarking algorithm. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.