Digital Signal Processing (DSP)

Lecture 1:
Introduction to Digital Signal
Processing (DSP)
(Terminology, Applications, Advantages, Limitations)
Prof. Dr. Fahreddin Sadikoglu
What is Digital Signal Processing?
Digital: operating by the use of discrete signals to
represent data in the form of numbers

Signal: any physical phenomenon that carries or convey

information fromone place to other and represents as a function
of independent variables such as time, distance etc.

Processing: a series operations performed according to

programmed instructions

Changing or analysing information which is

measured as discrete sequences of numbers
DSP Applications

Digital signal processing is a powerful technology that is widely used in

many applications,

 Navigation, radar, GPS

 Biomedical application (Ultrasound, ECG, EEG)
 Speech processing( Enhancement, noise filtering, Coding, Text-to-
speech and vice-versa conversion,Speech recognition
 Communication (Digital telephony, error control coding)
 Image Processing (Enhancement, coding, pattern recognition)
 Music applications
 Multimedia application(Media transmission, digital TV, video
conferencing
 Automotive
 Industrial Process, control, robotic, surveillance systems)
 Military applications
Applications of DSP - Radar

Radar and Sonar:

Examples

1) target detection – position and

velocity estimation

2) tracking

6
Applications of DSP - Biomedical

Biomedical: analysis of biomedical signals,

diagnosis, patient monitoring,
preventive health care, artificial
organs
Examples:

1) electrocardiogram (ECG) signal – provides

doctor with information about the condition of
the patient’s heart

2) electroencephalogram (EEG) signal – provides

Information about the activity of the brain
Applications of DSP - Speech

Speech applications:

Examples
1) noise reduction – reducing background noise
in the sequence produced by a sensing device (microphone)

2) speech recognition – differentiating between various

speech sounds

3) synthesis of artificial speech – text to speech

systems for blind
Applications of DSP - Communications

Communications:

1) Telephony – transmission of information in digital form via

telephone lines, modem technology, mobile phones

2) encoding and decoding of the information sent over a physical

channel (to control transmission or to detect or correct errors in
transmission)
Applications of DSP – Image Processing

1) Content based image retrieval – browsing, searching and retrieving images from
database

2) Image enhancement

Biomedical
Enhancing X ray,
Ultrason, PET, MRI, ect.
images

2) Image compression - reducing the redundancy in the image data to optimize

transmission /storage. Compressed images are used on web pages to improve viewing
speed and performance.
Applications of DSP – Music

Music Applications:

Examples:

1) Recording

2) Playback

3) Manipulation (mixing, special effects)

Applications of DSP - Multimedia

Multimedia:
generation storage and
transmission of sound, still
images, motion pictures

1) digital TV

2) video conferencing
Course Overview

• DSP Technology Makes Cars Fuel Efficient And

Smarter

Today’s automobile is a digital automobile, incorporating

dozens of embedded processors connected via multiple
digital networks, controlling and optimizing the operation
of nearly every system in the automobile. And even more
processors are coming in future generations of cars, as
more complex signal processing algorithms enable
advances in safety, engine and emission control, driver
interfaces, and in-cabin information and entertainment
(“infotainment”).
DSP Applications-Millitary

The first DSP applications were born in the 70s and were mainly military
(radar, sonar).
Today, the same applications exist with a much higher performance Analog
Devices, Texas Instruments and Motorola develop DSP architecture for
millitary and aero-space applications.
Typical of military application based on:

 Navigation-radar, sonar, GPS

 Video and image processing
 Secure Communications
 Weapons system such as torpedoes, cruise missiles, ground-to-air
missiles, air-to-air missiles, or surveillance UAVs.
DSP chips

DSP chip – a programmable device, with its own native instruction

code designed specifically to meet numerically-intensive
requirements of DSP

capable of carrying out millions

of operations per second

Bluetooth Household Home

headset appliances theatre
system
DSP Implementation – ADC & DAC

To implement DSP we must be able to:

Analog Digital Digital Analog
signal
DAC
Signal Signal Signal
ADC DSP

2. Convert the analog information to digıtal signal using

analog-to-digital conversion (ADC)

e.g. Touch-Tone system of telephone dialling (when button ispushed two sinusoid signals are
generated (tones) and transmitted, a digital system determines the frequences and uniquely
identifies the button – digital (1 to 12) output

3. Convert the digital information, after being processed to an analog

signal using digital-to-analog conversion (DAC) & reconstruction
e.g. text-to-speech signal (characters are used to generate artificial sound

e.g. digital recording and playback of music (signal is sensed by

microphones, amplified, converted to digital, processed, and
converted back to analog to be played
Limitations of DSP
To implement DSP we must be able to perform ADC & DAC.
ADC is based on.

 Sampling
 Quantizing
 Coding

 Sampling causes loss of information and limited

frequency resolution related with aliasing.

 Quantizing causes again loss of information, quantizing

error and round-off error.

 limitation the number of bits in coding causes coding

error
Limitations of DSP Related with Sampling

Most signals are analog in nature, and have to be sampled

loss of information
• we only take samples of the signals at intervals and
don’t know what happens in between
aliasing
cannot distinguish between
higher and lower frequencies

Sampling theorem: to avoid aliasing,

sampling rate must be at least twice
the maximum frequency component
(`bandwidth’) of the signal

Gjendemsjø, A. Aliasing Applet, Connexions, http://cnx.org/content/m11448/1.14

Limitations of DSP - Antialias Filter

• Sampling theorem says there is enough information

to reconstruct the signal, which does not mean
sampled signal looks like original one
correct reconstruction is not
just connecting samples with
straight lines

needs antialias filter (to filter out all

high frequency components before
sampling) and the same for
reconstruction – it does remove
information though
Limitations of DSP – Frequency Resolution

Most signals are analog in nature, and have to be sampled

loss of information

• we only take samples for a limited period of time

limited frequency
resolution

does not pick up “relatively”

slow changes
Limitations of DSP – Quantisation Error

Most signals are analog in nature, and have to be sampled

loss of information
• limited (by the number of bits available) precision in data
storage and arithmetic

quantisation error

smoothly varying signal

represented by stair-case”
waveform
Advantages of Digital over Analog Signal Processing

• Digital system can be simply reprogrammed for other

applications / ported to different hardware / duplicated
(Reconfiguring analog system means hadware redesign, testing, verification)

• DSP provides better control of accuracy requirements

(Analog system depends on strict components tolerance, response may drift with
temperature)

• Digital signals can be easily stored without deterioration

(Analog signals are not easily transportable and often can’t be processed off-line)

• More sophisticated signal processing algorithms can be

implemented
(Difficult to perform precise mathematical operations in analog form)