Generating pink noise
In one of his most famous columns for Scientific American, Martin Gardner wrote about pink noise and its relation to fractal music. The article was based on a 1978 paper by Voss and Clarke, which presents, among other things, a simple...
Polynomial calculations on an FIR filter engine, part 1
Polynomial evaluation is structurally akin to FIR filtering and fits dedicated filtering engines quite well, with certain caveats. It’s a technique that has wide applicability. This two-part note discusses transducer and amplifier non-linearity...
60-Hz Noise and Baseline Drift Reduction in ECG Signal Processing
Electrocardiogram (ECG) signals are obtained by monitoring the electrical activity of the human heart for medical diagnostic purposes [1]. This blog describes a very efficient digital filter used to reduce both 60 Hz AC powerline noise and...
Exponential Smoothing with a Wrinkle
Introduction This is an article to hopefully give a better understanding to the Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) by providing a set of preprocessing filters to improve the resolution of the DFT. Because of the exponential nature of...
Discrete-Time PLLs, Part 1: Basics
In this series of tutorials on discrete-time PLLs we will be focusing on Phase-Locked Loops that can be implemented in discrete-time signal proessors such as FPGAs, DSPs and of course, MATLAB.
Project Report : Digital Filter Blocks in MyHDL and their integration in pyFDA
The Google Summer of Code 2018 is now in its final stages, and I’d like to take a moment to look back at what goals were accomplished, what remains to be completed and what I have learnt. The project overview was discussed in the previous blog...
Discrete Wavelet Transform Filter Bank Implementation (part 1)
UPDATE: Added graphs and code to explain the frequency division of the branches The focus of this article is to briefly explain an implementation of this transform and several filter bank forms. Theoretical information about DWT can be found...
A Useful Source of Signal Processing Information
I just discovered a useful web-based source of signal processing information that was new to me. I thought I'd share what I learned with the subscribers here on DSPRelated.com. The Home page of the web site that I found doesn't look at...
How to Find a Fast Floating-Point atan2 Approximation
Context Over a short period of time, I came across nearly identical approximations of the two parameter arctangent function, atan2, developed by different companies, in different countries, and even in different decades. Fascinated...
PID Without a PhD
I both consult and teach in the area of digital control. Through both of these efforts, I have found that while there certainly are control problems that require all the expertise I can bring to bear, there are a great number of control problems...
A Useful Source of Signal Processing Information
I just discovered a useful web-based source of signal processing information that was new to me. I thought I'd share what I learned with the subscribers here on DSPRelated.com. The Home page of the web site that I found doesn't look at...
3 Good News
Good News #1 Last week, I announced a new and ambitious reward program that will be funded by the new Vendors Directory. This week, I am happy to announce that we have our firsts two sponsors! Quantum Leaps & Abelon Systems have...
Generating pink noise
In one of his most famous columns for Scientific American, Martin Gardner wrote about pink noise and its relation to fractal music. The article was based on a 1978 paper by Voss and Clarke, which presents, among other things, a simple...
Exponential Smoothing with a Wrinkle
Introduction This is an article to hopefully give a better understanding to the Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) by providing a set of preprocessing filters to improve the resolution of the DFT. Because of the exponential nature of...
Margin Call: Fermi Problems, Highway Horrors, Black Swans, and Why You Should Worry About When You Should Worry
Discrete-Time PLLs, Part 1: Basics
In this series of tutorials on discrete-time PLLs we will be focusing on Phase-Locked Loops that can be implemented in discrete-time signal proessors such as FPGAs, DSPs and of course, MATLAB.
Analytic Signal
In communication theory and modulation theory we always deal with two phases: In-phase (I) and Quadrature-phase (Q). The question that I will discuss in this blog is that why we use two phases and not more.
Blogging Tutorial
This article will be updated on a regular basis based on your questions and feedback. Creating a new blog post Make sure your are logged in Click on 'Create new blog post' Although the online editor works pretty well and...
Four Ways to Compute an Inverse FFT Using the Forward FFT Algorithm
If you need to compute inverse fast Fourier transforms (inverse FFTs) but you only have forward FFT software (or forward FFT FPGA cores) available to you, below are four ways to solve your problem. Preliminaries To define what we're...
Handy Online Simulation Tool Models Aliasing With Lowpass and Bandpass Sampling
Analog Devices Inc. has posted a neat software simulation tool on their corporate web site that graphically shows the aliasing effects of both lowpass and bandpass periodic sampling. This is a nice tutorial tool for beginners in DSP. The...
Off Topic: The True Gravitational Geodesic
The third of my off topic Physics series resulting in the true gravitational geodesic equation and some surprising results about gravity.
A DSP Quiz Question
Here's a DSP Quiz Question that I hope you find mildly interestingBACKGROUNDDue to the periodic natures an N-point discrete Fourier transform (DFT) sequence and that sequence’s inverse DFT, it is occasionally reasonable to graphically plot...
Stereophonic Amplitude-Panning: A Derivation of the "Tangent Law"
This article presents a derivation of the "Tangent Law"
Discrete-Time PLLs, Part 1: Basics
In this series of tutorials on discrete-time PLLs we will be focusing on Phase-Locked Loops that can be implemented in discrete-time signal proessors such as FPGAs, DSPs and of course, MATLAB.
Round Round Get Around: Why Fixed-Point Right-Shifts Are Just Fine
Today’s topic is rounding in embedded systems, or more specifically, why you don’t need to worry about it in many cases.One of the issues faced in computer arithmetic is that exact arithmetic requires an ever-increasing bit length to...
Hello and Introduction
Hello all.I would like to take this chance to talk a little about what I am going to try and do in this blog. While working in the field, I have come across some interesting techniques. It has, at times, taken some time and effort to understand...
Music/Audio Signal Processing
Greetings,This is my blog from the point of view of a music/audio DSP research engineer / educator. It is informal and largely nontechnical because nearly everything I have to say about signal processing is (or will be) somewhere in my four-book...
Python scipy.signal IIR Filter Design
Introduction The following is an introduction on how to design an infinite impulse response (IIR) filters using the Python scipy.signal package. This post, mainly, covers how to use the scipy.signal package and is not a thorough...
The Discrete Fourier Transform of Symmetric Sequences
Symmetric sequences arise often in digital signal processing. Examples include symmetric pulses, window functions, and the coefficients of most finite-impulse response (FIR) filters, not to mention the cosine function. Examining symmetric sequences can give us some insights into the Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT). An even-symmetric sequence is centered at n = 0 and xeven(n) = xeven(-n). The DFT of xeven(n) is real. Most often, signals we encounter start at n = 0, so they are not strictly speaking even-symmetric. We’ll look at the relationship between the DFT’s of such sequences and those of true even-symmetric sequences.
