Window function – figure of merits

Key focus: Window function smooths the observed signal over the edges. Analysis of some important parameters to help select the window for an application. Spectral leakage As we know, the DFT operation can be viewed as processing a signal through a set of filter banks with bandwidth Δf centered on the bin (frequency) of interest … Read more

Equivalent noise bandwidth (ENBW) of window functions

Key focus: Equivalent noise bandwidth (ENBW), is the bandwidth of a fictitious brick-wall filter that allows same amount of noise as a window function. Learn how to calculate ENBW in applications involving window functions and FFT operation. FFT and spectral leakage As we know, the DFT operation can be viewed as processing a signal through … Read more

Plot FFT using Python – FFT of sine wave & cosine wave

Key focus: Learn how to plot FFT of sine wave and cosine wave using Python. Understand FFTshift. Plot one-sided, double-sided and normalized spectrum using FFT. Introduction Numerous texts are available to explain the basics of Discrete Fourier Transform and its very efficient implementation – Fast Fourier Transform (FFT).  Often we are confronted with the need … Read more

Phase demodulation via Hilbert transform: Hands-on

Key focus: Demodulation of phase modulated signal by extracting instantaneous phase can be done using Hilbert transform. Hands-on demo in Python & Matlab. Phase modulated signal: The concept of instantaneous amplitude/phase/frequency are fundamental to information communication and appears in many signal processing application. We know that a monochromatic signal of form x(t) = a cos(ω … Read more

Extract envelope, phase using Hilbert transform: Demo

Key focus: Learn how to use Hilbert transform to extract envelope, instantaneous phase and frequency from a modulated signal. Hands-on demo using Python & Matlab. If you would like to brush-up the basics on analytic signal and how it related to Hilbert transform, you may visit article: Understanding Analytic Signal and Hilbert Transform Introduction The … Read more

Understanding Analytic Signal and Hilbert Transform

Key focus of this article: Understand the relationship between analytic signal, Hilbert transform and FFT. Hands-on demonstration using Python and Matlab. Introduction Fourier Transform of a real-valued signal is complex-symmetric. It implies that the content at negative frequencies are redundant with respect to the positive frequencies. In their works, Gabor [1] and Ville [2], aimed … Read more

Interpret FFT results – obtaining magnitude and phase information

In the previous post, Interpretation of frequency bins, frequency axis arrangement (fftshift/ifftshift) for complex DFT were discussed. In this post, I intend to show you how to interpret FFT results and obtain magnitude and phase information. Outline For the discussion here, lets take an arbitrary cosine function of the form \(x(t)= A cos \left(2 \pi … Read more

Interpret FFT, complex DFT, frequency bins & FFTShift

Key focus: Interpret FFT results, complex DFT, frequency bins, fftshift and ifftshift. Know how to use them in analysis using Matlab and Python. Four types of Fourier Transforms: Often, one is confronted with the problem of converting a time domain signal to frequency domain and vice-versa. Fourier Transform is an excellent tool to achieve this … Read more

Construct autocorrelation Matrix in Matlab & Python

Auto-correlation, also called series correlation, is the correlation of a given sequence with itself as a function of time lag. Cross-correlation is a more generic term, which gives the correlation between two different sequences as a function of time lag. Given two sequences and , the cross-correlation at times separated by lag i is given … Read more

Chirp Signal – FFT & PSD in Matlab & Python

Key focus: Know how to generate a Chirp signal, compute its Fourier Transform using FFT and power spectral density (PSD) in Matlab & Python. Introduction All the signals discussed so far do not change in frequency over time. Obtaining a signal with time-varying frequency is of main focus here. A signal that varies in frequency … Read more