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Free DSP Books on the Internet - Part Deux

Rick Lyons December 4, 20081 comment

Since Stephane Boucher posted my "Free DSP Books on the Internet" blog here in February 2008, I have learned of additional books on the Internet that are related to signal processing. I list those books below. Again, the listed books are copyrighted. The books' copyright holders have graciously provided their books free of charge for downloading for individual use, but multiple copies must not be made or printed. As such, be aware that using any of these books as promotional material is...


Computing the Group Delay of a Filter

Rick Lyons November 19, 200817 comments

I just learned a new method (new to me at least) for computing the group delay of digital filters. In the event this process turns out to be interesting to my readers, this blog describes the method. Let's start with a bit of algebra so that you'll know I'm not making all of this up.

Assume we have the N-sample h(n) impulse response of a digital filter, with n being our time-domain index, and that we represent the filter's discrete-time Fourier transform (DTFT), H(ω), in polar form...


Computing Large DFTs Using Small FFTs

Rick Lyons June 23, 200821 comments

It is possible to compute N-point discrete Fourier transforms (DFTs) using radix-2 fast Fourier transforms (FFTs) whose sizes are less than N. For example, let's say the largest size FFT software routine you have available is a 1024-point FFT. With the following trick you can combine the results of multiple 1024-point FFTs to compute DFTs whose sizes are greater than 1024.

The simplest form of this idea is computing an N-point DFT using two N/2-point FFT operations. Here's how the trick...


Linear-phase DC Removal Filter

Rick Lyons March 30, 200826 comments

This blog describes several DC removal networks that might be of interest to the dsprelated.com readers.

Back in August 2007 there was a thread on the comp.dsp newsgroup concerning the process of removing the DC (zero Hz) component from a time-domain sequence [1]. Discussed in that thread was the notion of removing a signal's DC bias by subtracting the signal's moving average from that signal, as shown in Figure 1(a).

Figure 1.

At first I thought...


Free DSP Books on the Internet

Rick Lyons February 23, 200824 comments

While surfing the "net" I have occasionally encountered signal processing books whose chapters could be downloaded to my computer. I started keeping a list of those books and, over the years, that list has grown to over forty books. Perhaps the list will be of interest to you.

Please know, all of the listed books are copyrighted. The copyright holders have graciously provided their books free of charge for downloading for individual use, but multiple copies must not be made or printed. As...


A Simple Complex Down-conversion Scheme

Rick Lyons January 21, 20087 comments
Recently I was experimenting with complex down-conversion schemes. That is, generating an analytic (complex) version, centered at zero Hz, of a real bandpass signal that was originally centered at ±fs/4 (one fourth the sample rate). I managed to obtain one such scheme that is computationally efficient, and it might be of some mild interest to you guys. The simple complex down-conversion scheme is shown in Figure 1(a).

It works like this: say we have a real xR(n) input bandpass...


Computing Chebyshev Window Sequences

Rick Lyons January 8, 200811 comments

Chebyshev windows (also called Dolph-Chebyshev, or Tchebyschev windows), have several useful properties. Those windows, unlike the fixed Hanning, Hamming, or Blackman window functions, have adjustable sidelobe levels. For a given user-defined sidelobe level and window sequence length, Chebyshev windows yield the most narrow mainlobe compared to any fixed window functions.

However, for some reason, detailed descriptions of how to compute Chebyshev window sequences are not readily available...


Spectral Flipping Around Signal Center Frequency

Rick Lyons November 7, 20074 comments

Most of us are familiar with the process of flipping the spectrum (spectral inversion) of a real signal by multiplying that signal's time samples by (-1)n. In that process the center of spectral rotation is fs/4, where fs is the signal's sample rate in Hz. In this blog we discuss a different kind of spectral flipping process.

Consider the situation where we need to flip the X(f) spectrum in Figure 1(a) to obtain the desired Y(f) spectrum shown in Figure 1(b). Notice that the center of...


A Differentiator With a Difference

Rick Lyons November 3, 200712 comments

Some time ago I was studying various digital differentiating networks, i.e., networks that approximate the process of taking the derivative of a discrete time-domain sequence. By "studying" I mean that I was experimenting with various differentiating filter coefficients, and I discovered a computationally-efficient digital differentiator. A differentiator that, for low fequency signals, has the power of George Foreman's right hand! Before I describe this differentiator, let's review a few...


Stereophonic Amplitude-Panning: A Derivation of the 'Tangent Law'

Rick Lyons February 20, 20198 comments

In a recent Forum post here on dsprelated.com the audio signal processing subject of stereophonic amplitude-panning was discussed. And in that Forum thread the so-called "Tangent Law", the fundamental principle of stereophonic amplitude-panning, was discussed. However, none of the Forum thread participants had ever seen a derivation of the Tangent Law. This blog presents such a derivation and if this topic interests you, then please read on.

The notion of stereophonic amplitude-panning is...


Free DSP Books on the Internet - Part Deux

Rick Lyons December 4, 20081 comment

Since Stephane Boucher posted my "Free DSP Books on the Internet" blog here in February 2008, I have learned of additional books on the Internet that are related to signal processing. I list those books below. Again, the listed books are copyrighted. The books' copyright holders have graciously provided their books free of charge for downloading for individual use, but multiple copies must not be made or printed. As such, be aware that using any of these books as promotional material is...


Looking For a Second Toolbox? This One's For Sale

Rick Lyons June 29, 2017
In case you're looking for a second toolbox, this used toolbox is for sale.

The blue-enameled steel toolbox measures 13 x 7 x 5 inches and, when opened, has a three-section tray attached to the lid. Showing signs of heavy use, the interior, tray, and exterior have collected a fair amount of dirt and grease and bear many scratches. The bottom of the box is worn from having been slid on rough surfaces. 

The toolbox currently resides in Italy. But don't worry, it can be shipped to you....


Microprocessor Family Tree

Rick Lyons January 10, 20195 comments

Below is a little microprocessor history. Perhaps some of the ol' timers here will recognize a few of these integrated circuits. I have a special place in my heart for the Intel 8080 chip.

Image copied, without permission, from the now defunct Creative Computing magazine, Vol. 11, No. 6, June 1985.


Algebra's Laws of Powers and Roots: Handle With Care

Rick Lyons September 25, 202318 comments

Recently, for entertainment, I tried to solve a puzzling algebra problem featured on YouTube [1]. In due course I learned that algebra’s $$(a^x)^y=a^{xy}\qquad\qquad\qquad\qquad\qquad(1)$$

Law of Powers identity is not always valid (not always true) if variable a is real and exponents x and y are complex-valued.

The fact that Eq. (1) can’t reliably be used with complex x and y exponents surprised me. And then I thought, “Humm, …what other of algebra’s identities may also...


A Lesson In Engineering Humility

Rick Lyons May 20, 20198 comments

Let's assume you were given the task to design and build the 12-channel telephone transmission system shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1

At a rate of 8000 samples/second, each telephone's audio signal is sampled and converted to a 7-bit binary sequence of pulses. The analog signals at Figure 1's nodes A, B, and C are presented in Figure 2.

Figure 2

I'm convinced that some of you subscribers to this dsprelated.com web site could accomplish such a design & build task....

The Real Star of Star Trek

Rick Lyons September 25, 20168 comments

Unless you've been living under a rock recently, you're probably aware that this month is the 50-year anniversary of the original Star Trek show on American television. It's an anniversary worth noting, as did Time and Newsweek magazines with their special editions.

   

Over the years I've come to realize that a major star of the original Star Trek series wasn't an actor. It was a thing. The starship USS Enterprise! Before I explain my thinking, here's a little...


Some Thoughts on a German Mathematician

Rick Lyons January 11, 20106 comments

Carl Friedrich Gauss

Here are a few interesting facts about the great Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777-1855), considered by some historians to have been the world's greatest mathematician. The overused phrase of "genius" could, with full justification, be used to describe this man. (How many people do you know that could have discovered the law of quadratic reciprocity in number theory at the age seventeen years?) Gauss was so prolific that by some estimates he personally doubled the amount of...


Update To: A Wide-Notch Comb Filter

Rick Lyons December 9, 2019

This blog presents alternatives to the wide-notch comb filter described in Reference [1]. That comb filter, which for notational reasons I now call a 2-RRS wide notch comb filter, is shown in Figure 1. I use the "2-RRS" moniker because the comb filter uses two recursive running sum (RRS) networks.

The z-domain transfer function of the 2-RRS wide-notch comb filter, H2-RRS(z), is:

References

[1] R. Lyons, "A Wide-Notch Comb Filter", dsprelated.com Blogs, Nov. 24, 2019, Available...