Convolution, Fourier Series, and

the Fourier Transform

CS414 Spring 2007
Roger Cheng
(some slides courtesy of Brian Bailey)

Convolution
A mathematical

operator which computes the

amount of overlap between two functions.
Can be thought of as a general moving
average
Discrete domain:
Continuous

domain:

Discrete domain

Basic steps
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Flip (reverse) one of the digital functions.

Shift it along the time axis by one sample.
Multiply the corresponding values of the two digital functions.
Summate the products from step 3 to get one point of the
digital convolution.
Repeat steps 1-4 to obtain the digital convolution at all times
that the functions overlap.

Example

Continuous domain example

Continuous domain example

LTI (Linear Time-Invariant) Systems

Convolution

can describe the effect of an LTI

system on a signal
Assume we have an LTI system H, and its
impulse response h[n]
Then if the input signal is x[n], the output signal
is y[n] = x[n] * h[n]
x[n]

y[n] = x[n]*h[n]

Mathematics of Waves
Periodic

In

phenomena occur everywhere

vision, sound, electronic communication, etc.

order to manipulate physical world, we need

mathematical tools

Fourier Series

Any reasonable function can be expressed as a

(infinite) linear combination of sines and cosines
F(t) = a0 + a1cos (t) + b1sin(t) +
a2cos (2t) + b2sin(2t) +
=

n 0

( an cos(nt ) bn sin( nt ))

F(t) is a periodic function with

Reasonable?
F(t)

is a periodic function with

must

satisfy certain other conditions

finite number of discontinuities within T

finite average within T
finite number of minima and maxima

Calculate Coefficients
F (t ) n 0 (an cos( nt ) bn sin( nt ))

a0

f (t )dt
0

2
ak
T

T
T

f (t ) cos(kt )dt
0

2
bk
T

f (t ) sin(kt )dt
0

Example
F(t)

= square wave, with T=1.0s (

1.0

Example
4
F (t ) sin t

Example
4
4
4
F (t ) sin t
sin 3t sin 5t

3
5

Example
What

if

T = .01s;

F (t )

4
4
4
sin t
sin 3t
sin 5t

3
5

T = .05s;

F (t )

4
4
4
sin t
sin 3t
sin 5t

3
5

T = 50s;

F (t )

4
4
4
sin t
sin 3t
sin 5t

3
5

Time vs. Frequency Domain

Time

Frequency

F (t )

4
4
4
sin t
sin 3t sin 5t

3
5

Why Frequency Domain?

Allows efficient representation of a good approximation to

the original function

Makes filtering easy

Note that convolution in the time domain is equivalent to

multiplication in the frequency domain (and vice versa)

When you are faced with a difficult convolution (or multiplication),

you can switch domains and do the complement operation

Fourier Family

Discrete Fourier Transform

Rarely
Must

have closed form equation for F(t)

sample at periodic intervals

generates a series of numeric values

apply transform to a time window of values
N = number of sample points
x[ ] contains sample points

DFT Notation
ck[i]

and sk [i] are the cosine and sine waves,

each N points in length

ck is cosine wave for amplitude in ReX[k]

sk is sine wave for amplitude in ImX[k]

refers to the frequency of the wave

usually between 0 and N/2

ck[i ] cos(2ki / N )
sk[i ] sin( 2ki / N )

Complex exponentials
Alternatively,
Eulers

we can use complex exponentials

formula: eiw = cos(w) + i*sin(w)

Calculate DFT
Separate

sinusoids
N 1

Re X [ k ] x[i ] cos(2ki / N )
i 0

N 1

Im X [k ] x[i ] sin( 2ki / N )

i 0

Complex

exponentials

Calculate Inverse DFT

Coefficients

first need to be normalized

Re X [ k ]
Im X [k ]
Re X [k ]
Im X [k ]
N /2
N /2

With

two special cases

Re X [0]
Re X [0]
N

Re X [ N / 2]
Re X [ N / 2]
N

Calculate Inverse DFT

Corresponding

points within the basis function

contribute to each input value

Equation uses the normalized coefficients

Result

is exactly equal to original data (within

rounding error), ie IDFT(DFT(x[n])) = x[n]
N /2

N /2

k 0

k 0

x[i ] Re X [k ] cos(2ki / N ) Im X [k ] sin (2ki / N )

DCT (Discrete Cosine Transform)

DCT

is very similar to DFT

Sine wave + phase shift equals cosine wave

N coefficients of cosine basis functions
Advantage: Result is purely real
Most common is Type II
Used in JPEG and MPEG

FFT (Fast Fourier Transform)

FFT is an efficient algorithm for computing the DFT

Nave method for DFT requires O(N2) operations

FFT uses divide and conquer to break up problem into many 2point DFTs (which are easy to compute)
2-point DFT: X[0] = x[0] + x[1]
X[1] = x[0] x[1]
log2N stages, O(N) operations per stage => O(N log N) total
operations
Ideally, want N to be a power of 2 or close to a power of 2

4-point FFT butterfly diagram

Fourier Transform
Definitions:

Can

be difficult to compute =>

Often rely upon table of transforms

Delta function
Definition:

Often,

the result of the Fourier Transform needs

to be expressed in terms of the delta function

Fourier Transform pairs

There

is a duality in all transform pairs