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MP3 Audio watermarking using calibrated side information features for tamper detection and localization

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Abstract

Audio contents are frequently stocked up and transmitted in compressed formats. Among the many existing audio compression schemes, MPEG-1 Audio Layer III (MP3) is very popular and still widely spread. Therefore, this paper represents a tamper detection method for MP3 files based on watermarking operating directly in the compression domain using Huffman data and recompression calibration. This method is based on a set of side information features embedded in the MP3 audio file as a watermark and used later to decide if the frame is doubly compressed. The detection of doubly compressed frames or singly compressed frames makes the selection of tampered frames possible. We made experiments on a set of MP3 audio clips to evaluate our method. Experimental results validate the efficiency of our approach compared to other methods from the literature.

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Availability of data and codes

We developed our own dataset by obtaining Quranic and various categories of MP3 files from these sources and then preparing them for silence deletion before using them for digital audio watermarking. We’ve also used the MP3 decoder (https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/27303-complete-implementation-of-a-mp3-decoder), and the GitHub code folder (https://github.com/SalmaMasmoudi/MP3tamperdetection.git).

Abbreviations

BER:

Bit Error Rate

CPU:

Process Time

DAE:

Denoising Auto Encoder

DCT:

Discret Cosine Transform

DWT:

Discret Wavelet Transform

HAS:

Human Auditory System

HVS:

Human Visual System

IFPI:

International Federation of Phonographic Industry

LSF:

Line Spectral Frequencies

LWT:

Lifting Wavelet Transform

MD5:

Message Digest

MDCT:

Modified Discret Cosine Transform

MP3:

MPEG1 layer3

MPEG:

Moving Picture Experts Group

NC:

Normalized Cross-correlation

ODG:

Objective Difference Grade

OVSF:

Orthogonal Variable Spreading Factor

PCM:

Pulse Code Modulation

PEAQ:

Perceptual Evaluation of Audio Quality

RDM:

Rational Dither Modulation

RPCA:

Robust Principal Component Analysis

SVD:

Singular Value Decomposition

XOR:

eXclusive OR

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Author information

Author notes

  1. Maha Charfeddine and Chokri Ben Amar These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Groups in Intelligent Machines (REGIM Lab), University of Sfax, National Engineering School of Sfax (ENIS), BP 1173, 3038, Sfax, Tunisia

    Salma Masmoudi & Maha Charfeddine

  2. Department of Computer Engineering, College of Computers and Information Technology, Taif University, P.O. Box 11099, Taif 21944, Saudi Arabia

    Chokri Ben Amar

Authors
  1. Salma Masmoudi
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  2. Maha Charfeddine
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  3. Chokri Ben Amar
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Salma Masmoudi.

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Appendix A Watermarking Scheme’s Details

Appendix A Watermarking Scheme’s Details

This appendix contains supplementary figures that may be helpful in providing a more comprehensive understanding of the watermarking methodology and different choices of parameters.

Fig. 12
figure 12

NC values after embedding watermark in different region of big value part

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Figure 12 argues the selection of Region2.. It shows the computed NC values for extracted marks and inserted ones hidden respectively in region0, region1 and region2.

Fig. 13
figure 13

Attitude of selected Side Information Features after content manipulation attacks

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Figure 13 displays the attitude of side information features after some content manipulation attacks. It shows the computed BER (Bit Error Rate) values for the feature under test (embedded as watermark) and the detected one after undergoing different content manipulation attacks.

Fig. 14
figure 14

Features values of a doubly compressed and tampered file

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Figure 14 resumes the comparison of the computed measure derived from the distance between the side information feature of the original signal (extracted watermark) and those measured from watermarked signal and the threshold.

Figure 15 displays the different steps to embed watermark in the MP3 input file after selecting the big value region (region2).

Fig. 15
figure 15

Watermark embedding (Bloc A)

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Fig. 16
figure 16

Recompression calibration (Bloc C)

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Figure 16 summarizes the step of recompression calibration.

Fig. 17
figure 17

Feature extraction (Bloc B)

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Figure 17 shows how to extract the side information feature from the input file to construct the watermark.

Fig. 18
figure 18

General scheme of synchronization step

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Figure 18 summarizes step by step the synchronization process.

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Masmoudi, S., Charfeddine, M. & Ben Amar, C. MP3 Audio watermarking using calibrated side information features for tamper detection and localization. Multimed Tools Appl (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-024-18202-2

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