ECO 231

Signals and Systems

Introduction
Signal
 What is a signal
 A description of how one parameter is related to another parameter.
 Examples
 The voltage varies with time

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Signal

 The Speech Signal

 The ECG Signal

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Signal

 The image

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Signal

 The image

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Signal
 It is the variation pattern that conveys the
information, in a signal

 Signal may exist in many forms like acoustic,

image, video, electrical, heat & light signal
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Examples of Signals

 Signals are everywhere and may reflect countless

measurements of some physical quantity such as:
 electric voltages
 brain signals
 heart rates
 temperatures
 image luminance
 investment prices
 vehicle speeds
 seismic activity
 human speech
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System

An entity that responds to a signal

system

input output

 Examples
 Circuit

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System

 The camera Image

 The Speech Recognition System

Identified

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 System
 The audio CD-player
 Block Diagram representation of a system
 Visual representation of a system

Input Signal Output Signal

system
 Shows inter-relations of many signals involved in the implementation of a
complex system

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Mathematical Representation
 A signal can be represented as a function of one or
more independent variables
 Examples

vt   sin t  0  t  2

s t  11
Mathematical Representation
 The image is a function of two spatial variables

s x, y 
 An image is nothing more than a two dimensional signal.
It is defined by the mathematical function f(x,y) where x
and y are the two co-ordinates horizontally and vertically.
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Signal Acquisition

 Various apparatus could be used to

acquire signals, including:
 Digital camera  Image
 MRI scanner  Activity of the brain
 EEG/EMG/EOG electrodes 
Physiological signals
 Voice recorder  Audio signal

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Signal Dimensions

 1D (e.g. dependent on time)

 2D (e.g. images dependent

on two coordinates in a plane)

 3D (e.g. describing an object in space)

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Multi-Channel Signals

 In some applications, signals are generated by multiple sources

or multiple sensors represented by a vector
 Such a vector is called a multi-channel signal.
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
C3 0
Example: brain signals 50
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C4 0

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P3 0

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P4 0

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O1 0

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O2 0

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Sample (250 per second)

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