Audio watermarking based on quantization index modulation using combined perceptual masking

In this paper, a robust audio watermarking scheme for MPEG-1/ Audio Layer II compressed domain is proposed. The scheme is implemented by modifying the subband coefficients using adaptive quantization index modulation. The watermarking procedure exploits perceptual frequency and temporal masking of the human auditory system (HAS) of MPEG coder to satisfy the requirements of robustness, security and transparency. This reduces the computational complexity of proposed scheme. The paper investigates the use of elevated masking threshold to improve detection and achieve higher robustness against re-encoding and awgn attacks. Experimental results show that high capacity of 6,840 bps with ODG ?0.5 without altering the MPEG/audio bitrate.