Digital Signal Processing: A Practitioner's Approach

Preface

There are many books on the subject of digital signal processing, but I have not come across any that cater for practising engineers and beginners. This book aims to meet the needs of people who wish to grasp the concepts and implement them. Without compromising the analytical rigour behind the concepts, it takes you smoothly from grasping the ideas to implementing them for yourself.

Digital signal processing (DSP) is practised by people of all disciplines. Historically, seismologists did major research using DSP, particularly on earthquake prediction. Statisticians such as Box and Jenkins used DSP to study the flow of rivers in North America, finding that they provided an easy way for merchants to transport logs from the mountain forests to the foothills.

Only recently have communications engineers begun using DSP. And it's even more recently that DSP has been embraced by military personnel, space scientists, bankers, stockbrokers, clinical doctors and astronomers, with the famous example of predicting sunspots. In his April 1987 paper ‘Challenges to Control in Signal Processing and Communications’ (Control Systems Magazine, 7(2), 3–6) Willsky has presented an interesting perspective on unifying the concepts of control, communication, statistics and systems engineering. Enthusiastic readers are advised to consult it.

I have written this book with the mindset of a hardcore electrical engineer, always attempting to translate information into a piece of hardware worthy of ...