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Another Audio Watermark Scheme Wins TI DSP Contest

Posted by timothy on from the psshhhshhhsh-don't-play-this-psshhshshhh dept.

CaptainTylor writes: "Texas Instruments' DSP and Analog Design Contest Challenge is over, and the winner is a group of students from Technion, the Israel Institute of Technology, who presented yet another scheme for digital-audio watermarking, and got US$100,000 for it. Here is a Dallas Morning News article on the winners, which is of course light on the tech details. Abstracts of the winner and the other two finalists are available, but I couldn't find the full submissions. It's worth noting that the competition was not specifically about copyright protection, just about using the TI TMS320 DSP in interesting ways. Wonder how long it'll take before someone cracks this scheme..."

And speaking of schemes, cracking, audio and contests, Logic Bomb writes: "According to an article from the Associated Press, the United States National Archives are holding a contest of sorts to see if anyone can finally figure out what was erased on the infamous Watergate tape that pushed Nixon's downfall over the brink. It would be amazing to have this national mystery put to rest."

10 of 119 comments (clear)

  1. I Know! by Steve+B · · Score: 4, Funny
    the United States National Archives are holding a contest of sorts to see if anyone can finally figure out what was erased on the infamous Watergate tape that pushed Nixon's downfall over the brink

    It's [EXPLETIVE DELETED] [EXPLETIVE DELETED] [EXPLETIVE DELETED] [EXPLETIVE DELETED] [EXPLETIVE DELETED] [EXPLETIVE DELETED] [EXPLETIVE DELETED] [EXPLETIVE DELETED] [EXPLETIVE DELETED] [EXPLETIVE DELETED]....

    --
    /. If the government wants us to respect the law, it should set a better example.
  2. I cracked it by Reckless+Visionary · · Score: 4, Funny

    Just hold the audio up to the light, it's right there.

    --
    I think I'll stop here.
  3. The Nixon contest is a trap by Beinoni · · Score: 4, Funny

    Anyone who recovers what Nixon erased from the tape will be sued by his estate under the DMCA for circumventing his encryption scheme. Sorry.

  4. good to see... by ravrazor · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...that canada's still represented...although the university of waterloo is getting weirder and weirder. take a bunch of nerds, put them in a small town with a beer festival and this is the result, i guess.

    anybody (from UW or otherwise) got an abstract for this one?

    Canada
    University of Waterloo
    Intelligent Motion Control Using the TMS320LF2407 Applied to a Six-Legged Walking Robot

    1. Re:good to see... by Rimbo · · Score: 3, Funny

      Waterloo's a really good school. If a nickel flew out my ass for every good piece of research I heard about from UW when I was in grad school, well then...I'd have a serious bagful of shit-coated nickels.

      Good to see they're still churning out good research.

      Oh, btw, the URL is here:
      http://real.uwaterloo.ca/~robot/

  5. Cracking it... by ackthpt · · Score: 5, Funny
    Wonder how long it'll take before someone cracks this scheme..."

    Maybe they actually wrote the crack first, then reverse engineered it.

    --

    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
  6. Re:It's Kind Of Sad... by tuffy · · Score: 4, Funny
    You'd think he and those around him have gotten pretty used to the way he 'speaks' by now. It'd be weird and distracting to change now.
    I try to imagine Stephen Hawkings giving a lengthy dissertation on the grand unification theory with the voice of James Earl Jones, but I can't quite do it...

    I suppose it would be pretty distracting.

    --

    Ita erat quando hic adveni.

  7. Cause they copied it! by SirSlud · · Score: 4, Funny

    what was erased on the infamous Watergate tape that pushed Nixon's downfall over the brink. It would be amazing to have this national mystery put to rest

    Actually, I heard the blank spot was just noise introduced by a top-secret CIA funded copy-protection scheme from the era. ;)

    Hey, at least we got some of the tape! If all this copy-protection shit had been introduced 30 years ago, we wouldn't have the tape AT ALL.

    Heehee.

    --
    "Old man yells at systemd"
  8. what a horrible idea by Chundra · · Score: 5, Funny
    Dammit. If there's one thing I truly hate, it's getting water in my ear. It sloshes around and makes everything sound muffled. Try as I might, there's nothing I can do to get it out of there, so eventually I give up. Then, late at night, I'll be lying in bed and this unexpected stream of warm water trickles onto my pillow. Suddenly I can hear again! Out of curiosity, I get up, turn on the light and see just a few drops of ear fluid on the pillow. I think to myself, "Wow, such a tiny watermark made such a big difference".

    And they want us to PAY for that? I think not!

  9. Wonder by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    "Wonder how long it'll take before someone cracks this scheme.."

    I wonder how long it'll take before someone gets arrested for cracking this scheme...