Hardware Implementation of Audio Watermarking Based on DWT Transform

Abstract

Presently, the duplicate copy of an audio can be generated with great ease using some smart devices, and transmitted over the internet which raises concern over copyright and privacy. Digital audio watermarking is a procedure to insert some data bits known as watermark into audio signal. Then the audio with watermark is to be transmitted to end user or made public. The proposed algorithm is used to insert a binary watermark image into a detailed coefficient of the Daubechies 9/7-based DWT transform. A watermark is dispersed consistently in low frequencies, which builds the robustness and inaudibility of the watermark data. Further, the watermark is embedded into an audio signal to have robust system against audio attacks and inaudible performance. The algorithm is verified using MATLAB and subsequently implemented on FPGA hardware to verify the real-time performance. Hardware implementation helps to embed the watermark at the same instance when audio is being captured. The results show promising application for real-time audio applications.