Data Hiding Scheme for Amplitude Modulation Radio Broadcasting Systems

This paper proposes a data hiding scheme for amplitude-modulation (AM) radio broadcasting systems. The method of digital audio watermarking based on cochlear delay (CD) that we previously proposed is employed in this scheme to construct a datahiding scheme in the AM domain. We investigate the feasibility of applying the method of CD-based inaudible watermarking to send inaudible additional messages in AM signals. The proposed scheme modulates a carrier signal with both original and watermarked signals as lower and upper sidebands by using the novel double-modulation and then transmits the modulated signal to the receivers. Particular receivers in the proposed scheme demodulate the received signals to get both original and watermarked signals by using the double-demodulation and then extract messages from the watermarked signal and the original signal using CD-based watermarking. The results we obtained from computer simulations revealed that the proposed scheme can transmit messages as watermarks in AM signals and then correctly extract the messages from observed AM signals. The results also indicated that the sound quality of the demodulated signals could be kept high not only with the proposed scheme but also in traditional AM radio systems. This means that the proposed scheme has the possibility of acting as a hidden-message transmitter as well as having low-level compatibility with AM radio systems. The proposed scheme could be applied in emergency alert systems and high utility AM radio services.

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