lec.6 Image Processing Asst. lec.

Arwa Amir

6.1The Discrete Fourier Transform

 Consider the continuous function f(x) of infinite extent,
shown in Figure 2.11(a), whose frequency spectrum is
shown in Figure 2.11(b).

 The comb function that repeats at the rate of a can he used

to sample f (x), producing the sampled function f s(x):

For a periodic one-dimensional signal f(x), a Fourier series

representation of this signal is defined by:

Figure 2.1 l(c) shows the sampled function of f(x) with a

sampling rate of a.

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 lec.6 Image Processing Asst. lec. Arwa Amir

 To compute the Fourier transform of the sampled function,

the well known convolution identity is used.

 The convolution identity states that multiplication in one

domain leads to convolution in the other domain.

For example, if g(x, y) = h(n, y) . f(x, y), then by the

convolution identity the Fourier components of g(n,y) are
related to the Fourier components of f(x, y) and h(n, y) by:

Where the * operator denotes convolution and is defined

as:

The Fourier transform of the sampled function is found by

taking the Fourier transform of f(x) and the comb(x/a) given in
the right hand side of the first Equation separately, and then
applying the convolution identity to find the Fourier components
of the sampled function f s(x). The Fourier transform of a comb
function that repeats at the rate (a) is also a comb function with
a height of (a) and repeats at the rate l/a. The Fourier transform
of f(x) is simply F(w). The Fourier transform of the sampled
function is:

 The goal is to convert the continuous Fourier transform

into the discrete Fourier transform.
 Sampling an image is only part of the problem; the image
must also be truncated to a finite size. Figure 2.11(e)
shows the sampled one-dimensional function, truncated to
a finite length of N. This is accomplished by multiplying
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 lec.6 Image Processing Asst. lec. Arwa Amir

the sampled function fs(x) by a rect function that has been

shifted to the right by N12 and has a width of N.

 From the convolution identity, multiplication in one

domain yields convolution in the other domain. As stated
previously, the Fourier transform of the rect function is a
sinc function. Convolving the Fourier transform of fs(x),
as shown in Figure 2.11(d).

 With the sinc function yields the magnitude spectrum

shown in Figure 2.1 l ( f ) .

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 lec.6 Image Processing Asst. lec. Arwa Amir

 The effect of truncating the sampled function to a finite

size distorts the spectral components by adding ringing in
the form of side lobes. The effect of truncation can be
partially eliminated by using various types of window
functions such as the Hamming, Blackman, and Kaiser
windows.

These window functions reduce the amplitude of fs(x) at its

edges and hence reduce the discontinuous step added by the
multiplication of the rect function.

 The interested reader is referred to one of the many linear

systems and communication books that are given in the
bibliography. Since the Fourier transform will be
computed via a digital computer, both the spatial and
frequency domains must be sampled. So far an image has
been sampled and truncated to a finite size. The only
process that is left is to sample the Fourier domain at the
rate of one over the number of sampled points (1/N).

 Figure 2.11(h) gives the one-dimensional example of

sampling the Fourier domain. Using the identity that
sampling in one domain makes the other domain periodic,
the sampled function fs(x) is now also periodic at the rate
N.

 Figure 2.11(g) illustrates the periodic nature of fs(x) due to

sampling the Fourier components at the interval of 1/N.
Hence, sampling the spectral components of an image
produces a sampled image that is also periodic.

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 lec.6 Image Processing Asst. lec. Arwa Amir

 Now that both the spatial and Fourier domains have been
sampled, the discrete Fourier transform (DFT) can be
defined for an N x M finite sized image with a sampling
interval of Ax and Ay in the x and y directions as:

And it's inverse: