22. A method for identifying a candidate audio dataset, the method comprising the steps of: a) computing a binary fingerprint bitmap of a known dataset in a known dataset database; b) deleting a first number of samples from the known dataset; c) after step (b), computing another binary fingerprint bitmap of the known dataset; d) repeating steps (b) and (c) a plurality of times to create a plurality of binary fingerprint bitmaps; and e) combining the plurality of binary fingerprint bitmaps into a ternary bitmap, where each bit in the ternary bitmap is determined as follows: e.1) If a bit is 0 in a first predetermined number of the plurality of binary bitmaps, set the bit in the ternary bitmap to 0; e.2) If a bit is 1 in a second predetermined number of the plurality of binary bitmaps, set the bit in the ternary bitmap to 1; and e.3) Otherwise, set the bit of the ternary bitmap to *, wherein * is a Don't Care bit; f) saving the ternary bitmap into a ternary bitmap database; g) repeating steps (a)-(f) for all known datasets in the known dataset database; h) creating a candidate dataset binary fingerprint bitmap from the candidate dataset; and i) comparing the candidate dataset binary fingerprint bitmap to each ternary bitmap in the ternary bitmap database, wherein said comparison ignores the Don't Care bit.
22. A method for identifying a candidate audio dataset, the method comprising the steps of: a) computing a binary fingerprint bitmap of a known dataset in a known dataset database; b) deleting a first number of samples from the known dataset; c) after step (b), computing another binary fingerprint bitmap of the known dataset; d) repeating steps (b) and (c) a plurality of times to create a plurality of binary fingerprint bitmaps; and e) combining the plurality of binary fingerprint bitmaps into a ternary bitmap, where each bit in the ternary bitmap is determined as follows: e.1) If a bit is 0 in a first predetermined number of the plurality of binary bitmaps, set the bit in the ternary bitmap to 0; e.2) If a bit is 1 in a second predetermined number of the plurality of binary bitmaps, set the bit in the ternary bitmap to 1; and e.3) Otherwise, set the bit of the ternary bitmap to *, wherein * is a Don't Care bit; f) saving the ternary bitmap into a ternary bitmap database; g) repeating steps (a)-(f) for all known datasets in the known dataset database; h) creating a candidate dataset binary fingerprint bitmap from the candidate dataset; and i) comparing the candidate dataset binary fingerprint bitmap to each ternary bitmap in the ternary bitmap database, wherein said comparison ignores the Don't Care bit. 27. The method of claim 22 , wherein said binary fingerprint bitmap and said candidate binary fingerprint bitmap each comprise an acoustic fingerprint bitmap.