Lecture Note Introduction to DSP EC504_DSP

Introduction to DSP

Lecture 1

 Introduction to Signals and Systems,

 Example of different signals
 Signals processing
 Advantages of digital signal processing over analog signal processing
 Disadvantages of Digital signal processing over analog signal processing:
 Application areas of DSP
 Typical signal processing operations

Introduction

Signal: A signal is defined as any physical quantity that varies with time, space, or any other
independent variable or variables.

Example:

Speech, electrocardiogram (ECG) and electroencephalogram (EEG) signals are examples of

information bearing signals that evolve as functions of a single independent variable time. These
are one dimensional signal.

The image or picture is an example of a two-dimensional signal, since the intensity or brightness
I (x, y) at each point is a function of two independent variables.

A black and white television picture may be represented as I (x, y, t) since the brightness is a
function of time. TV picture may be treated as three-dimensional signal.

A color TV picture may be described by three intensity functions IR (x, y, t); IG(x, y, t); IB(x, y, t)
corresponding to the brightness of the three principal colors (red, green, blue) as functions of
time. The color TV picture is a three channel, three-dimensional signal.

Signal processing: Signal processing is a method of extracting information from the signal
which in turn depends on the type of signal and the nature of information it carries. Thus, signal
processing is concerned with representing signals in mathematical terms and extracting the
information by carrying out algorithm operations on the signals.

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Lecture Note Introduction to DSP EC504_DSP

Advantages of digital signal processing over analog signal processing:

1. Flexibility- Digital implementation allows flexibility to reconfigure the DSP operations

by simply changing the program.
2. Accuracy- DSP provides any desirable accuracy by simply increasing the number of bits.
3. Easy storage- Digital signals can be easily saved on storing media such as magnetic tape,
disk, and optical disk without loss of information. They can be easily transported and
processed off-line in remote laboratories.
4. Processing- DSP allows for the implementation of more sophisticated signal processors
than its analog counterparts.
5. Cost effectiveness- With the recent advances in VLSI circuit technology the digital
implementation of the signal processing system is cheaper.
6. No drift- No drifts in performance with temperature and age.
7. Immunity to noise- DSP is immune to noise.
8. Easy processing of VLF signal- DSP is applicable to easy processing of the very low
frequency (VLF) signals such as seismic signals, whereas an analog processing system
requires very large size inductors and capacitors.
9. Perfect reproducibility- No variations due to component tolerances.

Digital signal processing also has some disadvantages over analog signal processing:

1. Finite word length- Cost considerations limit the DSP implementation with a smaller
number of bits which may create degradation in system performance.
2. System complexity- Increased complexity in the digital processing of an analog signal
because of the need for devices such as ADC, DAC, and the associated filters.
3. Speed limitation- Signals having extremely wide band widths requires fast sampling rate
ADC and fast digital signal processors. But the speed of operation of ADC and digital
signal processors has a practical limitation.

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Lecture Note Introduction to DSP EC504_DSP

Application areas of DSP:

1. Speech processing- Speech compression and decompression for voice storage system
and for transmission and reception of voice signals; speech synthesis in message warning
systems.
2. Communication- Elimination of noise by filtering and echo cancellation; adaptive
filtering in transmission channels.
3. Biomedical- Spectrum analysis of ECG signals to identify various disorders in the heart,
spectrum analysis of EEG signal to study the malfunctions in the brain.
4. Consumer electronics- Music synthesis, digital audio and video.
5. Seismology- Spectrum analysis of seismic signals (signal generated by the movement of
rocks) ca be used to predict earthquake, volcanic eruptions and earth movement.
6. Image processing- Two-dimensional filtering on images for image enhancement,
fingerprint matching, image compression, medical imaging etc.
7. Navigation- Global positioning system satellite signals processing for air, sea, and land
navigation
8. Genomic signal processing- Processing of sequences of a human genome to explore the
mysteries.

Typical signal processing operations:

1. Elementary time domain operations- The basic time domain signal processing
operations are scaling, shifting, addition, and multiplication.
2. Correlation- Correlation of signals is necessary to compare one reference signal with
one or more signals to determine the similarity between them and to determine additional
information based on the similarity.
3. Digital filtering- Digital filtering is one of the most important operation in DSP. Filtering
is basically a frequency domain operation and is used to pass certain band of frequencies
without any distortion and to block other frequency components.
4. Discrete transformation- Discrete transform is the representation of discrete time
signals in the frequency domain and inverse discrete transform converts the signals from
the frequency domain block to the time domain.
5. Multiplexing and demultiplexing- Multiplexing is a process where multiple analog
signals or digital data streams are combined into one signal for transmission over a
standard medium. The reverse process to extract the original message signals at the
receiver end is known as demultiplexing.

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