ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the reader to the basic technical aspects of audio fingerprinting. It provides an overview of an audio fingerprinting technology as developed by Philips Research. The chapter also provides an analysis of the commonalities and the differences between watermarking and fingerprinting. The subfingerprints are designed such that they are robust against signal degradations. In the majority of cases, audio watermarking is not part of the content creation process. Audio fingerprints intend to capture the relevant perceptual features of audio. At the same time, extracting and searching fingerprints should be fast and easy, preferably with a small granularity to allow usage in highly demanding applications. The chapter argues that the choice for a particular technology is highly application dependent. It outlines a number of questions with respect to fingerprinting that require further study, hoping that the scientific community will pick them up.
