U.S. Philips Corporation

Arnoldus W Oomen

Robbert G Van Der Waal

Marc E Groenewegen

Leon Maria Van De Kerkhof

Raymond N Veldhuis

Alphons A Bruekers

Petrus A Nuijten

Geert F Depovere

Method of embedding watermarks in a signal encoded by an encoder having a feedback loop, for example, a sigma-delta modulator (21,22,23). A digital watermark pattern (w) is embedded in the signal (z) by modifying selected samples (for example, replacing every 100th bit) of the encoded signal (y) by samples of the watermark pattern. The circuit (24) for modifying the samples is located inside the loop of the encoder. The effect of watermarking is thus compensated in subsequent encoding steps and the signal-to-noise ratio is only slightly affected.

Embedding supplemental data in an encoded signal, such as audio / video

A transmitter provided with a subband coder is disclosed. The transmitter receives a wideband digital information at an input 1 and provides an output signal for transmission at an output (30). The input signal may have a varying sampling frequency (f.sub.g). The bitrate of the output signal is substantially constant. In order to compensate for the varying sampling frequency of the input signal, the transmitter is provided with a buffer memory (8) and a detector (18) for determining the filling degree of the memory (8). The control signal so derived, which is representative of the filing degree, is supplied to the bitallocation information generation unit (10). The bitpool B is varied in response to the control signal so as to control the filling degree to a nominal value, such as half full (FIG. 1). Further a receiver is disclosed for receiving the transmitted wideband digital information signal.

Transmitter for and method of transmitting a wideband digital

An encoder apparatus is disclosed for encoding a wideband digital information signal. The apparatus comprises an input signal (1) for receiving the wideband digital information signal, a signal splitting unit (2) for splitting the wideband digital information signal into M narrow band sub signals (SB.sub.1 to SB.sub.M). The narrow bands all have a specific constant bandwidth. Further, a scale factor determining unit (6) for determining a scale factor for subsequent signal blocks in each of the sub signals, and a quantization unit (13) for quantizing the samples in a signal block into quantized samples are present. A bit allocation information deriving unit (34,41,48) is present for deriving bit allocation information, the bit allocation information being representative of the number of bits with which samples in a signal block of a sub signal will be represented after quantization in the quantization unit (13). A formatting unit (20) is present for combining the quantized samples in the signal blocks of the quantized sub signals and the scale factors into a digital output signal having a format suitable for transmission or storage. The apparatus further comprises a signal block length determining unit (30) for determining the lengths of the signal block in at least one of the sub signals and for generating block length information, the block length information being representative of the said lengths of the signal blocks of the said at least one sub signal, where the lengths of subsequent signal blocks in said at least one sub signal differ. The scale factor determining unit (6) now determines the scale factors for subsequent signal blocks of varying lengths in response to said block length information, the bit allocation information deriving unit (34,41,48) now derives bit allocation information for subsequent signal blocks of varying lengths in response to said block length information, and the quantization unit (13) now quantize the samples in signal blocks of varying lengths in response to said block length information. The formatting unit (20) further includes the block length information into the digital output signal for transmission or storage.

Encoding and decoding of a wideband digital information signal

For encoding sound received as a stream of multibit input sample, from a finite length sequence of input samples, an instantaneous audibility threshold characteristic is determined. Next, a shaped, dither determined, signal is subtracted from the input samples to produce processing samples. Subtracting a dither signal dynamically ignores processing sample bits below the threshold. Next, quantization by a variable number of bits below the threshold is performed, while retaining all sample bits above the threshold. The ignored bits are replaced by the dither signal as buried channel bits at an adjustable number of bits per sample. Therefore, upgraded samples have non-ignored bits and buried channel bits are obtained and outputted. The noise is shaped through shape-filtering a difference between the upgraded samples and the processing samples, which shape-filtering may amend a received white-noise-like signal towards an actual threshold-versus-frequency characteristic.

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Eindhoven, Netherlands

Arnoldus W Oomen