2016 Conference on Advances in Signal Processing (CASP)
Cummins College of Engineering for Women, Pune. Jun 9-11, 2016
Design of a Spatial domain Watermarking
technique with VLSI Implementation
MANISHA PENDYALA
PG Scholar, Dept of Electronics Engg,
Yeshwantrao Chavan College of Engineering,
Nagpur, India
manisha11may@gmail.com
Abstract — This paper utilizes a spatial domain Watermarking
algorithm applicable on grayscale images. Spatial domain
technique is utilized taking advantage of it low computational
complexity. The initial stage of approach is accomplished by
building the algorithm on MATLAB R2014a© platform and then
shifting the base to ISE Design Suite 14.7© platform. The VLSI
implementation of the spatial domain Watermarking algorithm is
targeted on device xc5vlx50t-1ff1136 of Virtex-5 family. The
robustness of the Watermarking algorithm is verified by attacking
the Watermarked image with various types of noise, compression,
transformation and geometrical attacks. The application of
Multiple Watermarking technique also renders the effectiveness
and robustness of the watermarking algorithm.
Keywords — Spatial domain, Threshold, Multiple Watermarking
I. INTRODUCTION
In this era of multimedia and mass communication, the
easy availability of multimedia contents within a blink of eye
without copyright ownership, authentication, ownership
verification has raised several issues of breaching norms of
digital world, forgery and piracy [1]. Digital Watermarking and
Steganography are the promising useful solutions in the present
world of multimedia [2]. Digital watermarking is the means by
which the authenticated user of any data can maintain the
integrity and the security of the information contained in the
data whereas Steganography is the process of data hiding in a
set of media file which appears to be unimportant and the user
can easily transmit the media file containing the information
hiding it from the attentive eyes [3,4,5]. It is a process of
embedding the secret or special information which a user wants
to hide called as Watermark. The means of media elements like
image, audio, video by which a user succeeds in hiding the
information and can protect the contents or information from
forgery will serve as Host to the Watermark. Watermarking
technique finds a place in Consumer Electronics, Medical
Imaging, Data handling, Finger printing [1,6] etc.
There are several watermarking techniques available
depending upon the modes of embedding domain namely
Spatial domain, Frequency and Multi-resolution domain [7].
The Spatial domain has less computational complexity and
978-1-5090-0849-0/16/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE
ANIKET GOKHALE
Dept of Electronics Engg,
Yeshwantrao Chavan College of Engineering,
Nagpur, India
gokhale.aniket@gmail.com
implies for the modification of the pixel values in an image and
retains the quality of the image. The Frequency and Multi-
resolution domain are transformation domains having more
computational complexity but provides a much stronger
medium for embedding Watermarks. In Frequency domain,
frequency or cosine constituents of the image are taken into
consideration [8] whereas in Multi-resolution domain, Wavelet
transformation of the image as per JPEG2000 standards is
carried out [9]. This domain is widely used one in
Watermarking as it sustains various types of attacks and
maintains the quality of the image.
Also, there are various techniques based upon the human
perception system namely Visible & Invisible Watermarking
[10]. In Visible watermarking, the human eye is able to
distinguish the fact that some additional information has been
added to the original pixel values of the image. The Invisible
watermarking accounts for Robust, Fragile or both Robust &
Fragile Techniques which are categorized depending upon
resistance to attacks. Robust Watermarking can survive
different types of Watermarking attacks and can maintain the
important information under various circumstances. It is mainly
useful for copyright protection. Fragile Watermarking process,
on the other hand, have the watermarks that are vulnerable to
Watermarking attacks and which when tampered can result in
the loss of important data that it contained. It can be useful for
authentication and content verification purpose. There are also
some Watermarking methods which are Robust to some
Watermarking attack and some specific image processing
operations while being fragile to other attacks. Such type of
methods are referred to as Semi-Fragile Watermarking
techniques by some authors [11].
II. WATERMARKING ALGORITHM
In this paper, we have used a Spatial domain Watermarking
technique by the name Save Algorithm proposed by
H.H.Larijani, G.R.Rad [7] which is modified to include a fixed
threshold instead of optional threshold to improve the
computational time. The fixed threshold has been included
instead of an optional value based on the fact that the human
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perception system can distinguish 32 gray intensity levels out
of the 256 intensity levels. This explains why a human eye can
distinguish between intensity values of 34 and 43 but cannot
distinguish between the intensity values of 34 and 36 and they
will appear to have same gray shade. Taking into consideration
this fact of human perception system, the threshold range has
been decided.
A) Overview of Algorithm
The proposed Watermarking algorithm saves some of the
locations of the host image depending upon the similarity of
pixel values in Host and Watermark images as a secret key in
the embedding process and then uses this secret key for the
retrieval of the watermark image in the extraction process. The
secret key is required for authentication of the watermark
image.
The algorithm makes a comparison between the Host and
Watermark Image pixel values. Each watermark pixel value is
compared with the pixel values of the Host Image for the
similarity or atleast the condition of neighbourhood pixel of the
Watermark image pixel in the Host image should be satisfied.
The first two members of the Secret Key contains the
information about the size of the Watermark image (m*n). The
other members will preserve the information related to the
location of the Host pixel value where the condition is satisfied.
The location map is in terms of X and Y co-ordinates giving us
2 + 2(m*n) values in the Secret key including the Watermark
image size information as in case of MATLAB R2014a©
(fig-1.C) whereas in case of ISE Design Suite 14.7© since
predefined memory is utilized, so the location map is a
continuous vector (fig-1.D).
As seen from the above example first two members represent
size while the other member represents the location values. In
case of unavailability of watermark pixel value in the Host
image, the neighbourhood of the searched pixel value within the
given threshold is searched. The pixel value 136 is not available
in the Host image and so, it’s neighbouring pixel value is
searched within the threshold range. If Threshold = 1 then
location (1, 4) is stored.
B) Embedding Process Algorithm
The two input images are taken where the Host image will
act as a carrier to the Watermark image pixel values. The size of
Watermark image is first stored in the contents of Secret key
vector. Then the actual comparison of pixel values is carried on
starting with the first Watermark pixel. If any match is found or
if there is a presence of any neighbouring pixel within the given
Threshold in the host image then that location of the pixel in
Host Image is stored in the Secret Key contents. This procedure
is repeated for all the watermark pixels until all the pixels have
been searched for a match.
Algorithm(Embedding Process)
Input: ‘A’ is WATERMARK image & ‘B’ is HOST image
Output: ‘Secret_Key’
Size of A = m*n and B = p*q
Begin
(i,j) & (k,l)
a = A(i,j) : Gray scaled pixel value at position(i,j)
b = B(k,l) : Gray scaled pixel value at position(k,l)

247 243 255 137 8 if ( a & b are equal ) or (difference < Threshold)
Store (k,l) location in a vector called Secret_Key
240 235 255 138 6 Select next pixel value (i,j)
Repeat till all watermark image pixels are compared
233 226 255 137 4 End
247 255 6
Save Secret_key for comparison and Extraction
226 219 252 134 2 Save ‘B’ as WATERMARKED image
136 250 133

225 218 250 133 2

B Fig-2 Embedding process Algorithm
A
C) Extraction Process Algorithm
2 3 1 1 1 3 2 5 1 4 5 3 4 4
The host Image taken, now acts as a Watermarked image.
The first two members of the Secret Key decides the size of the
C matrix of watermark image to be extracted. For every member
excluding the first two members, a match corresponding to the
location saved in the Secret Key is searched. If a match is found,
1 3 10 4 23 19 the pixel value present at that location will be saved at the
consecutive places in the created matrix having the size declared
D in the Secret Key vector. All the locations stored in Secret key
are searched and the corresponding pixel values at that location
Fig-1 A) Host image of size 5 x 5 B) Watermark image of size 2 x 2
will fill the generated matrix. Finally, the created matrix will be
C) Secret Key in X & Y co-ordinates D) Secret Key as a Vector used for the extraction of Watermark image.

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 Algorithm (Extracting Process)
Input: ‘A’ is HOST image & ‘Secret_key’ is a vector
Output: ‘W’ is the Retrieved Watermark Image
Create Size of W = m*n matrix
Initializing counter to search for pixel location in HOST image
While counter <= m*n
(i,j)
Search for a match such that-
Secret key data represents location of pixel values
W(i,j) = A(Secret_key(counter),Secret_key(counter+1))
Incrementing counter
End
Reconstructing the WATERMARK IMAGE from W(i,j) values.
Fig-3 Extraction process Algorithm
III. VLSI DESIGN FLOW
The subsequent sections in this part shows the data flow and
control flow of the Embedding and Extracting process acting as
the Encoder and Decoder of the proposed Watermarking
Algorithm.
A) Data flow for Embedding process
Two RAMs of sizes corresponding to Watermark image and
Host image sizes are declared. The comparator is used for the
comparison purpose. If pixel values are equal while searching,
then the Host Image location corresponding to the pixel value is
stored. If equality is not satisfied, then the threshold criteria of
the searched pixel and the Host pixels are checked for the
comparison. The matched pixel locations in Host image are
stored in the Secret Key one at a time.
Fig-4 Data path of Embedding process
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B) Data flow for Extraction process
Two RAMs of sizes corresponding to Host image and Secret
Key sizes are declared. The comparator is used to check for the
location stored in the Secret Key with the corresponding location
in the Host image RAM. The pixel value of the matched location
in the Host image will be stored at the matched location of the
Secret Key in the Output RAM which is the required Watermark
Image pixels.
Fig-5 Data path of Extraction process
The storing of pixel values in the RAMs requires the
conversion of the pixel values from the image format of uint8 to
the hex text file. This text file is then initialized in the RAMs
declared corresponding to the Host and the Watermark images.
C) Control flow for Embedding & Extraction process
The controller is required to drive data path of Embedding
and Extraction process. The same controller is built in Encoder
& Decoder blocks of the Watermarking Algorithm. The
controller has three stages: S0, S1 & S2.
S0 is the initialization stage of both Encoder & Decoder
blocks. In Encoder stage, it initiates Embedding process whereas
in Decoder stage, it initiates Extraction process when the Start
signal is high otherwise it waits for the Start signal to get high.
S1 is the Comparison stage in both Encoder & Decoder blocks
for comparison of pixel values in Encoder & comparison of
memory locations in Decoder. The storing of values is done at
the onset of match signal in both the blocks. S2 is the
initialization stage of Host image pixels for comparison with
new Watermark pixels in the Encoder block whereas for the
comparison with the incremented values of Secret key with the
Host memory locations, S2 stage acts as the initialization stage
of Host image memory locations and acts as the incrementation
stage for Secret Key contents.
The process is continued till the maximum size of the
watermark is reached. The process stops as soon as the last pixel
value of the Watermark image is compared and the match is
found in the Encoder stage whereas it stops in the Decoder stage
when last value of the secret key content is compared and the
match is stored.
 Simulation Results Embedding & Extraction time

MATLAB Results ISE Design MATLAB ISE Design

Suite Results Results Suite Results

Threshold = 2
2.327s 233.10μs
0.348s 230.34μs

(64×64) (64×64)

Threshold = 4
Fig-6 Controller for Embedding & Extraction process 6.746s 581.766μs
0.702s 581.766μs

For the hardware implementation, the memory mapping is to (64×64) (64×64)

be done between the internal RAM and the on-chip memory of
the Virtex-5 FPGA. The blocks to be build on the Virtex-5 board
are data path and control path of the FSM embedding process.
IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
A) Simulation Results
Since, there is a mention of Threshold in our paper, the
analysis of the algorithm using different values of Threshold and
the time taken in each case has been discussed. The embedding
and extraction simulation time are observed to be different for
same image of same size (64×64) but using different Threshold
(2, 4) in the algorithm.

B) Watermarking Attacks Results

For the robustness analysis of the discussed algorithm, the

Fig-7 Host Image Fig-8 Watermark image
Street2.jpg and peppers.png of sizes 256 × 256, 64 × 64 are
taken as Host and Watermark images respectively. The
simulation of algorithm is carried out using these images and a
secret key is developed which is later used for the extraction of
the embedded Watermark image. The embedding and extraction
are simulated both in MATLAB R2014a© and ISE Design Suite
14.7© and the results regarding generation of secret key and
retrieval of watermark image are cross verified. The cross
verification rendered the result that both secret key generation
and watermark image extraction are exactly the same.
algorithm was attacked with various types of watermarking
attacks. The effectiveness of the algorithm is measured in terms
of quantities of Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR), Normalized
Cross Correlation Coefficient (NCC) and Structural Similarity
Index Measure (SSIM) to quantify how similar the watermark
image, retrieved from the attacked host image, is in comparison
to the original watermark image.
The result of effectiveness of various types of Watermarking
attacks on Host image and the analysis of the retrieval of
watermark images has been tabulated. The watermarking attacks
that are carried on the discussed algorithm are noise attacks,
compression attacks, transformation attacks and geometrical
attacks.
The analysis of testing the Host Image with noise attacks and
transformation attacks infers that the algorithm is robust to these
attacks and the PSNR value is well above 18dB, NCC value is
well above 0.84 and the SSIM is well above 0.71 except the
Gaussian noise attack where SSIM parameter is low.

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 Table I – Analysis with noise and transformation attacks Table II – Analysis with Compression and Geometrical attacks
EXTRACTED EXTRACTED
ATTACKS WATERMARK PSNR NCC SSIM ATTACKS WATERMARK PSNR NCC SSIM
IMAGES IMAGES

WITHOUT 49.8317 0.9997 0.9972

ATTACK 29.2266 0.9624 0.8829

(QF = 5)
Gaussian
Noise 19.1393 0.8877 0.4752 JPEG
(Variance = Compression 32.3980 0.9923 0.9072
0.02) (default value of
QF = 75)

Poisson (QF =10)

Noise 29.5978 0.9988 0.8736

38.6129 0.9991 0.9775

Speckle
Noise 26.5161 0.9922 0.8501 (QF = 20)
(Variance =
0.02)
Scaling 11.7158 0.7676 0.2211
(In terms of
Salt & pepper
Original Host
Noise 19.7787 0.9088 0.7909
Image)
(Variance = (2 times)
0.02)

11.8276 0.6391 0.1909

Sharpening
20.9393 0.8429 0.7653
(4 times)

Blurring
23.9372 0.8838 0.8716 8.8387 0.0485 0.0072

Rotation
(In Degrees) (2º)

Image
Contrasting 18.9873 0.9388 0.7182
7.5428 0.0898 0.0030

(-2º)
Image
Transformation 19.1538 0.9130 0.7351

C) Multiple Watermarking Results

The analysis of testing the Host image with Compression
attacks infers that the algorithm is robust to the JPEG
compression attacks and the PSNR value is well above 29dB,
NCC value is well above 0.96 and the SSIM is well above 0.88
whereas the algorithm is fragile to attacks of rotation and scaling
and there is a loss of significant data in these attacks.
The multiple watermarking technique gives the flexibility to
the user to embed multiple watermarks in a single Host image.
It gives the user the feasibility to use the same Host image with
other users who can use several different watermark images to
make different keys. The application of Multiple Watermarking

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is utilized using the proposed algorithm and its effectiveness
against various noise attacks has been tabulated. The watermark
images used are of size 64×64 and the Host image is same as
used for testing the proposed algorithm.
Table III – Multiple Watermarking Analysis
V. CONCLUSION
Thus, we can conclude that the proposed Watermarking
Embedding technique when targeted on Hardware wherein
FPGA Virtex-5 board was utilized is fast as compared to
software implementation wherein MATLAB 2014a© Platform
was utilized and is robust to various noise attacks, compression
attacks and transformation but fragile to geometrical attacks.
The proposed algorithm also gives flexibility of utilizing
Multiple Watermarking technique with different watermark
images.

Host Image Watermark1 Watermark2 Watermark3

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Maximum output delay after clock: 3.259ns

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