Audio watermarking quality evaluation: robustness to DA/AD processes

Audio watermarking has become an important technology for the recording and advertisement industry. Today's embedding and detection strategies often rely on digital/ high quality channels, like CD or mp3. However for numerous applications, watermarks surviving noisy analog environments are better suited or even required. Using such schemes allows to identify, audio signals with monitoring devices which are 'listening' to the incoming signals. In the same way, illegal recordings of concerts can be identified. In this paper we describe a test environment for noisy, acoustic, (analog) channels and present results obtained from a particular watermarking scheme. We identify changes in the affected audio material, like frequency response or the amount of noise added to the signal. In order to do automatic robustness evaluations of watermarking schemes, the Stirmark Benchmark environment can be used. We analyze if it is possible to simulate an acoustic, noisy DA/AD environment with filters, quantization and noise generators. Based on the presented test results, we identify the parameters relevant for watermarks to successfully survive noisy acoustic channels and thereby provide valuable hints for audio watermark designers. We also describe a design concept for a DA/AD simulation.