Digital watermarking and information embedding using dither modulation

A variety of related applications have emerged that require the design of systems for embedding one signal within another signal. We propose a new class of embedding methods called quantization index modulation (QIM) and develop an example of such a method called dither modulation in which the embedded information modulates the dither signal of a dithered quantizer. We also develop a framework within which one can analyze performance trade-offs among robustness, distortion, and embedding rate, and we show that QIM systems have considerable performance advantages over previously proposed spread-spectrum and low-bit modulation systems.