Digital Signal Processing Using MATLAB for Students and Researchers

PREFACE

I was once asked what signal processing is. The questioner thought it had something to do with traffic lights. It became clear to me at that moment that although the theory and practice of signal processing in an engineering context has made possible the massive advances of recent times in everything from consumer electronics to healthcare, the area is poorly understood by those not familiar with digital signal processing (DSP). Unfortunately, such lack of understanding sometimes extends to those embarking on higher education courses in engineering, computer science, and allied fields, and I believe it is our responsibility not simply to try to cover every possible theoretical aspect, but to endeavor to open the student’s eyes to the possible applications of signal processing, particularly in a multidisciplinary context.

With that in mind, this book sets out to provide the necessary theoretical and practical underpinnings of signal processing, but in a way that can be readily understood by the newcomer to the field. The assumed audience is the practicing engineer, the engineering undergraduate or graduate student, or the researcher in an allied field who can make use of signal processing in a research context. The examples given to introduce the topics have been chosen to clearly introduce the motivation behind the topic and where it might be applied. Necessarily, a great deal of detail has to be sacrificed in order to meet the expectations of the audience. This is not ...