Semi-fragile speech watermarking based on singular-spectrum analysis with CNN-based parameter estimation for tampering detection

Abstract

A semi-fragile watermarking scheme is proposed in this paper for detecting tampering in speech signals. The scheme can effectively identify whether or not original signals have been tampered with by embedding hidden information into them. It is based on singular-spectrum analysis, where watermark bits are embedded into speech signals by modifying a part of the singular spectrum of a host signal. Convolutional neural network (CNN)-based parameter estimation is deployed to quickly and properly select the part of the singular spectrum to be modified so that it meets inaudibility and robustness requirements. Evaluation results show that CNN-based parameter estimation reduces the computational time of the scheme and also makes the scheme blind, i.e. we require only a watermarked signal in order to extract a hidden watermark. In addition, a semi-fragility property, which allows us to detect tampering in speech signals, is achieved. Moreover, due to the time efficiency of the CNN-based parameter estimation, the proposed scheme can be practically used in real-time applications. © The Authors, 2019.