FPGA based Audio Watermarking using Empirical Mode Decomposition

Digital watermarking is the technique of inserting specific information into signal, data, image or video. Copyright protection, data authentication, covert communication and content identification can be achieved by Digital watermarking. This work aims at developing a robust and secure blind watermarking technique for speech signal. The speech is watermarked using Virtex-5 FPGA which implements a Micro Blaze softcore processor. The watermarking is done using EMD algorithm in MATLAB which is converted to C/C++ code to be used in FPGA through MATLAB Coder and Xilinx EDK software. The developed hardware finds use in public safety digital radio communications and such an interoperable emergency communication is integral to initial response, health of the masses, public safety, security of the nation and economic stability.