Hidden Images in Sound

First off thanks to TheShroudOfMemphis and JBurns for reminding me of this neat sound trick.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

That will explain to you how the process is done.

But what is it? Well images can be created in sound files by alternating frequencies. The image will be created when the sound is shown in spectral view.

Ive experimented with this before and have gotten some pretty neat results.

Here are some images. I will only give links because the images are large.
Jimi Hendrix

Really Above Top Secret

And here is a smaller version for all to see.




Its quite easy to do and with a little experimentation it can be integrated into any sound / song.

That would spice up your podcast.

According to the JBurns thread these can be viewed with certain visualization plugins but I have not tried it.

A useless thing, but quite cool at the same time.

[edit on 29-10-2005 by Dulcimer]

Aphex Twin did this also with the track WindowLicker

Yep thats the one that was mentioned in the research project thread.

That's a cool form of steganography! My understanding is that the images are encoded into the audio codec, so to speak. Real sound waves spectrum cannot be shaped like that. For example if you played the sound through speakers, and you recorded it from the other end of the room 'over the air', you would lose the encoded image. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Yes you would lose most of the translation although I imagine something MIGHT show up.

Even (as detailed in the thread listed in first post) changing the format effects the quality of the image.

Save converting it to .mp3

There is an image, but its not perfect.

I could try a crude translation process by recording my own sound back into my computer.

I made a sample message "This is a test" and played it through some speakers (headphones is all I have at the moment). I placed a microphone by the speakers and recorded the audio.

This is what the direct audio looks like.


This is what it looks like after being played and recorded.


This one repeats because I didnt shut it off fast enough.

Could this be used a basic encryption for transmitting data?
Maybe it is too crude to use now, but could it be a possibilty in the near future?

I was experimenting and it is possible to create a message that is not audible. Or very quiet for that matter.

Hidden Audio MP3

The text becomes less visible.