Digital Filters Design for Signal and Image Processing

1.1. Introduction

Throughout a range of fields as varied as multimedia, telecommunications, geophysics, astrophysics, acoustics and biomedicine, signals and systems play a major role. Their frequential and temporal characteristics are used to extract and analyze the information they contain. However, what importance do signals and systems really hold for these disciplines? In this chapter we will look at some of the answers to this question.

First we will discuss different types of continuous and discrete-time signals, which can be termed random or deterministic according to their nature. We will also introduce several mathematical tools to help characterize these signals. In addition, we will describe the acquisition chain and processing of signals.

Later we will define the concept of a system, emphasizing invariant discrete-time linear systems.