Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 Multimedia Systems DOI 10.1007/s00530-017-0545-x REGULAR PAPER An optimized high payload audio watermarking algorithm based on LU-factorization Arashdeep Kaur 1  · Malay Kishore Dutta 2   Received: 20 May 2016 / Accepted: 28 February 2017 © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2017 existing techniques also shows that the proposed algorithm is able to achieve high payload with good robustness under perceptual constraints. Keywords Digital watermarking · High embedding capacity · Information security · LU decomposition 1 Introduction Digital audio watermarking is gaining popularity over tra- ditional data protection techniques such as encryption for copyright protection and secure transmission of digital data over wide open networks [1–3]. Digital watermarking can be defned as a method of embedding digital data in host signal at source and efciently extracting the hidden data at the destination. According to watermark extraction strat- egy, the digital watermarking can be classifed into three categories: blind, semi-blind, and non-blind watermarking. In recent years, various algorithms for blind extrac- tion of watermark from audio signal have been pre- sented, though it is very difcult to design blind audio watermarking algorithm. Patil and Apte [4] presented blind audio watermarking algorithm in wavelet domain by using additive watermarking approach based on Sig- nal-to-noise ratio (SNR). It was reported that method is robust against MP3 compression, re-quantization, crop- ping, up-sampling, down-sampling and low pass flter- ing (LPF). The method is also shown to be imperceptible with an SNR of 38.68 dB (decibel) at 107 bps (bits per second) payload. Pun et al. [5] presented a self-synchro- nized audio watermarking algorithm where watermark is embedded in low-frequency components of discrete wavelet transform (DWT). It was reported that algo- rithm has payload of 102.4 bps at peak signal-to-noise Abstract In the feld of audio watermarking, reliably embedding the large number of watermarking bits per sec- ond in an audio signal without afecting the audible quality of the host audio with good robustness against signal pro- cessing attacks is still one of the most challenging issues. In this paper, a high payload, perceptually transparent and robust audio watermarking solution for such a problem by optimizing the existing problem using genetic algorithm is presented. The genetic algorithm in this paper is used to fnd the optimal number of audio samples required for hid- ing each watermarking bit. The embedding is done using the imperceptible properties of LU (lower upper) factoriza- tion in wavelet domain. This paper addresses the robustness within perceptual constraints at high payload rate in both mathematical analysis and experimental testing by repre- senting behavior of various attacks using attack characteri- zation. Experimental results show that the proposed audio watermarking algorithm can achieve 1280 bps capacity at an average Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 31.02 dB with good robustness to various signal processing attacks such as noise addition, fltering, and compression. In addition, the proposed watermarking algorithm is blind as it does not require the original signal or watermark during extrac- tion. The comparison of the proposed algorithm with the Communicated by L. Zhou. * Arashdeep Kaur akaur@amity.edu Malay Kishore Dutta mkdutta@amity.edu 1 Department of CSE, Amity University, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India 2 Department of ECE, Amity University, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India