## Approximating the area of a chirp by fitting a polynomial

Once in a while we need to estimate the area of a dataset in which we are interested. This area could give us, for example, force (mass vs acceleration) or electric power (electric current vs charge).

One way to do that is fitting a curve on our data, and let's face it: this is not that easy. In this post we will work on this issue using Python and its packages. If you do not have Python installed on your system, check here how to...

## Deconvolution by least squares (Using the power of linear algebra in signal processing).

When we deal with our normal discrete signal processing operations, like FIR/IIR filtering, convolution, filter design, etc. we normally think of the signals as a constant stream of numbers that we put in a sequence, such as $x(n)$ with $n\in\mathbb{Z}$. This is at first the most intuitive way of thinking about it, because normally in a digital signal processing system (especially when applied in real time), we take some analogue signal from a sensor like a microphone, convert it...

## The Most Interesting FIR Filter Equation in the World: Why FIR Filters Can Be Linear Phase

This blog discusses a little-known filter characteristic that enables real- and complex-coefficient tapped-delay line FIR filters to exhibit linear phase behavior. That is, this blog answers the question:

What is the constraint on real- and complex-valued FIR filters that guarantee linear phase behavior in the frequency domain?

I'll declare two things to convince you to continue reading.

Declaration# 1: "That the coefficients must be symmetrical" is not a correct

## Phase and Amplitude Calculation for a Pure Real Tone in a DFT: Method 1

May 21, 2015
Introduction

This is an article to hopefully give a better understanding of the Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) by deriving exact formulas for the phase and amplitude of a non-integer frequency real tone in a DFT. The linearity of the Fourier Transform is exploited to reframe the problem as the equivalent of finding a set of coordinates in a specific vector space. The found coordinates are then used to calculate the phase and amplitude of the pure real tone in the DFT. This article...

## Exact Frequency Formula for a Pure Real Tone in a DFT

Introduction

This is an article to hopefully give a better understanding of the Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) by deriving an exact formula for the frequency of a real tone in a DFT. According to current teaching, this is not possible, so this article should be considered a major theoretical advance in the discipline. The formula is presented in a few different formats. Some sample calculations are provided to give a numerical demonstration of the formula in use. This article is...

## DFT Bin Value Formulas for Pure Real Tones

April 17, 20151 comment
Introduction

This is an article to hopefully give a better understanding to the Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) by deriving an analytical formula for the DFT of pure real tones. The formula is used to explain the well known properties of the DFT. A sample program is included, with its output, to numerically demonstrate the veracity of the formula. This article builds on the ideas developed in my previous two blog articles:

## DFT Graphical Interpretation: Centroids of Weighted Roots of Unity

April 10, 2015
Introduction

This is an article to hopefully give a better understanding to the Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) by framing it in a graphical interpretation. The bin calculation formula is shown to be the equivalent of finding the center of mass, or centroid, of a set of points. Various examples are graphed to illustrate the well known properties of DFT bin values. This treatment will only consider real valued signals. Complex valued signals can be analyzed in a similar manner with...

## The Exponential Nature of the Complex Unit Circle

Introduction

This is an article to hopefully give an understanding to Euler's magnificent equation:

$$e^{i\theta} = cos( \theta ) + i \cdot sin( \theta )$$

This equation is usually proved using the Taylor series expansion for the given functions, but this approach fails to give an understanding to the equation and the ramification for the behavior of complex numbers. Instead an intuitive approach is taken that culminates in a graphical understanding of the equation.

Complex...

## Sum of Two Equal-Frequency Sinusoids

Some time ago I reviewed the manuscript of a book being considered by the IEEE Press publisher for possible publication. In that manuscript the author presented the following equation:

Being unfamiliar with Eq. (1), and being my paranoid self, I wondered if that equation is indeed correct. Not finding a stock trigonometric identity in my favorite math reference book to verify Eq. (1), I modeled both sides of the equation using software. Sure enough, Eq. (1) is not correct. So then I...

## Constrained Integer Behavior

May 26, 2014
The wheels go round and round, round and round ...

Integer arithmetic is ubiquitous in digital hardware implementations, it's prolific in the control and data-paths.  When using fixed width (constrained) integers, overflow and underflow is business as usual.

Building with Integers

The subtitle of this post mentions a wheel - before I get to the wheel I want to look at an example.  The recursive-windowed-averager (rwa, a.k.a moving average)...

## Feedback Controllers - Making Hardware with Firmware. Part 7. Turbo-charged DSP Oscillators

This article will look at some DSP Sine-wave oscillators and will show how an FPGA with limited floating-point performance due to latency, can be persuaded to produce much higher sample-rate sine-waves of high quality.

Comparisons will be made between implementations on Intel Cyclone V and Cyclone 10 GX FPGAs. An Intel numerically controlled oscillator

## Some Thoughts on Sampling

Some time ago, I came across an interesting problem. In the explanation of sampling process, a representation of impulse sampling shown in Figure 1 below is illustrated in almost every textbook on DSP and communications. The question is: how is it possible that during sampling, the frequency axis gets scaled by $1/T_s$ -- a very large number? For an ADC operating at 10 MHz for example, the amplitude of the desired spectrum and spectral replicas is $10^7$! I thought that there must be...

## Feedback Controllers - Making Hardware with Firmware. Part 2. Ideal Model Examples

August 24, 2017
Developing and Validating Simulation Models

This article will describe models for simulating the systems and controllers for the hardware emulation application described in Part 1 of the series.

## Correlation without pre-whitening is often misleading

White Lies

Correlation, as one of the first tools DSP users add to their tool box, can automate locating a known signal within a second (usually larger) signal. The expected result of a correlation is a nice sharp peak at the location of the known signal and few, if any, extraneous peaks.

A little thought will show this to be incorrect: correlating a signal with itself is only guaranteed to give a sharp peak if the signal's samples are uncorrelated --- for example if the signal is composed...

## Angle Addition Formulas from Euler's Formula

Introduction

This is an article to hopefully give a better understanding of the Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT), but only indirectly. The main intent is to get someone who is uncomfortable with complex numbers a little more used to them and relate them back to already known Trigonometric relationships done in Real values. It is essentially a followup to my first blog article "The Exponential Nature of the Complex Unit Circle".

Polar Coordinates

The more common way of...

## Multilayer Perceptrons and Event Classification with data from CODEC using Scilab and Weka

November 25, 2015

For my first blog, I thought I would introduce the reader to Scilab [1] and Weka [2].  In order to illustrate how they work, I will put together a script in Scilab that will sample using the microphone and CODEC on your PC and save the waveform as a CSV file.  Then, we can take the CSV file and open it in Weka.  Once in Weka, we have a lot of paths to consider in order to classify it.  I use the term classify loosely since there are many things you can do with data sets...

## Deconvolution by least squares (Using the power of linear algebra in signal processing).

When we deal with our normal discrete signal processing operations, like FIR/IIR filtering, convolution, filter design, etc. we normally think of the signals as a constant stream of numbers that we put in a sequence, such as $x(n)$ with $n\in\mathbb{Z}$. This is at first the most intuitive way of thinking about it, because normally in a digital signal processing system (especially when applied in real time), we take some analogue signal from a sensor like a microphone, convert it...

## Constrained Integer Behavior

May 26, 2014
The wheels go round and round, round and round ...

Integer arithmetic is ubiquitous in digital hardware implementations, it's prolific in the control and data-paths.  When using fixed width (constrained) integers, overflow and underflow is business as usual.

Building with Integers

The subtitle of this post mentions a wheel - before I get to the wheel I want to look at an example.  The recursive-windowed-averager (rwa, a.k.a moving average)...

## Feedback Controllers - Making Hardware with Firmware. Part 3. Sampled Data Aspects

September 9, 2017
Some Design and Simulation Considerations for Sampled-Data Controllers

This article will continue to look at some aspects of the controllers and electronics needed to create emulated physical circuits with real-world connectivity and will look at the issues that arise in sampled-data controllers compared to continuous-domain controllers. As such, is not intended as an introduction to sampled-data systems.

## Feedback Controllers - Making Hardware with Firmware. Part 4. Engineering of Evaluation Hardware

October 10, 2017
Following on from the previous abstract descriptions of an arbitrary circuit emulation application for low-latency feedback controllers, we now come to some aspects in the hardware engineering of an evaluation design from concept to first power-up. In due course a complete specification along with  application  examples will be maintained on the project website.