Signals and Systems using MATLAB

Chapter 1

Continuous-Time Signals

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

Lao Tzu (604–531 BCE) Chinese philosopher

1.1 Introduction

In this second part of the book, we will concentrate on the representation and processing of continuous-time signals. Such signals are familiar to us. Voice, music, as well as images and video coming from radios, cell phones, IPods, and MP3 players exemplify these signals. Clearly each of these signals has some type of information, but what is not clear is how we could capture, represent, and perhaps modify these signals and their information content.

To process signals we need to understand their nature—to classify them—so as to clarify the limitations of our analysis and our expectations. Several ...