School of Applied Medical Sciences

Biomedical Engineering Department

Medical Signal Processing
Fall 2014/2015

Experiment Title: Amplitude Modulation

Post Lab Report

Student:Deema Abuzaid
ID: 2009302030

MATLAB Codes Implemented & Results:

Part 1:
t=(1:1/2000:2); %
x=sawtooth(2*pi*5*t);
c=cos(2*pi*250*t);
AM=x.*c;
figure
subplot(3,1,1)
plot(t,x)
title ('Signal x(t)')
xlabel ('time (s)')
ylabel ('Amplitude')
subplot(3,1,2)
plot(t, c)
title ('Signal c (t)')
xlabel ('time (s)')
ylabel ('Amplitude')
subplot(3,1,3)
plot(t, AM)
title ('Signal AM (t)')
xlabel ('time (s)')
ylabel ('Amplitude')

Resulting Graphs

Figure 1: Original sawtooth signal vs. carrier signal vs. amplitude modulated sawtooth signal resulting from the multiplication
of both signals

Part 2:
n=length(x);
Freq= (-2000/2:2000/n:(2000/2)-(2000/n));
X=fft(x);
C=fft(c);
MagX=abs(X);
PhaseX=angle(X);
MagC=abs(C);
PhaseC=angle(C);
PSDX=abs(X.^2);
PSDC=abs(C.^2);
figure
subplot(5,1,1)
plot(t,x);
title 'Original Signal x(t)'
xlabel 'time (s)'
ylabel 'Amplitude'
subplot(5,1,2)
plot(Freq, MagX);
title 'Magnitude of X'
xlabel 'Frequency Hz'
ylabel 'Magnitude'
subplot(5,1,3)
plot(Freq, PhaseX);
title 'Phase of X'
xlabel 'Frequency Hz'
ylabel 'Angle'
subplot(5,1,4)
plot(Freq, X);
title 'Density Distribution of X'
xlabel 'Frequency Hz'
ylabel 'FFT of X'
subplot(5,1,5)
plot(Freq, PSDX);
title 'PSD of X'
xlabel 'Frequency Hz'
ylabel 'PSD of X'
figure
subplot(5,1,1)
plot(t,y);
title 'Original Signal c(t)'
xlabel 'time (s)'
ylabel 'Amplitude'
subplot(5,1,2)
plot(Freq, MagC);
title 'Magnitude of C'
xlabel 'Frequency Hz'
ylabel 'Magnitude'
subplot(5,1,3)
plot(Freq, PhaseC);
title 'Phase of C'
xlabel 'Frequency Hz'
ylabel 'Angle'
subplot(5,1,4)
plot(Freq, C);

title 'Density Distribution of C'

xlabel 'Frequency Hz'
ylabel 'FFT of C'
subplot(5,1,5)
plot(Freq, PSDC);
title 'PSD of C'
xlabel 'Frequency Hz'
ylabel 'PSD of C'

Resulting Graphs

Figure 2: Original sawtooth signal plotted vs. the magnitude, phase, and PSD after FFT

Figure 3:The carrier signal plotted vs. the magnitude, phase, and PSD after FFT

Part 3:
AM2=4*[1+(0.5*x)].*c;
figure
subplot(3,1,1)
plot(t,x)
title ('Signal x(t)')
xlabel ('time (s)')
ylabel ('Amplitude')
subplot(3,1,2)
plot(t, c)
title ('Signal c (t)')
xlabel ('time (s)')
ylabel ('Amplitude')
subplot(3,1,3)
plot(t, AM2)
title ('Signal AM2 (t)')
xlabel ('time (s)')
ylabel ('Amplitude')

Resulting Graphs

Figure 4: Original, carrier and amplitude modulated signal after loweing the modulation index to half

Part 4:
fs=2000;
x2=ppgorginal;
x2=x2';
t2=(1:length(x2))/fs;
c2=cos(2*pi*750*t2); %carrier signal
AM3=x2.*c2; %amp. modulated signal
figure
subplot(3,1,1)
plot(t2,x2)
title ('Signal x2(t)')
xlabel ('time (s)')
ylabel ('Amplitude')
subplot(3,1,2)
plot(t2, c2)
title ('Signal c2 (t)')
xlabel ('time (s)')
ylabel ('Amplitude')
subplot(3,1,3)
plot(t2, AM3)
title ('Signal AM3 (t)')
xlabel ('time (s)')
ylabel ('Amplitude')

Resulting Graphs

Figure 5: PPG signal vs. carrier signal vs. amplitude modulated PPG

Discussion
In part one, a sawtooth signal is generated in MATLAB and another sinusoidal signal is
generated and set to be the carrier signal in order to do amplitude modulation on the sawtooth
signal. In figure 1, the original signal, carrier signal, and the modulated signal generated by
multiplying both signals are plotted. As seen in the graph, the carrier signal carried the original
sawtooth signal from one frequency band to another. The frequency of the carrier signal is set to
be much higher than the highest frequency in the original signal in order to make it easier to
separate the two signals after demodulation.
In part two, the FFT is applied to the sawtooth signal and the carrier signal (each separated) and
the magnitude, phase and PSD of each signal after FFT are plotted. As seen in the graphs, the
important information on each signals frequency can be extracted.
In part three, the effect of the modulation index is tested by cutting it to half and observing how
it affects the amplitude modulated sawtooth signal. As seen in figure 4, the AM signal looks like

half of the original signal, which indicates that the modulation index defines the range of the
original signal to be modulated.
In part four, a prerecorded PPG signal (which is the measurement of the changes in the blood
flow or volume in a specific organ) recorded using a PPG sensor on the finger is used and
processed using amplitude modulation. After choosing the appropriate frequency of the carrier
signal, the PPG signal is multiplied by the carrier signal and the result is plotted in figure 5. After
applying AM the signal that is now carried to a different frequency band can be demodulated and
useful information can be extracted from it now that it is moved to a frequency range away from
any noise effects.
Conclusion
A PPG is a way to measure the changes in the blood flow or volume in a specific organ. It is
usually used on the tip of the finger. It can be useful in approximating the amount of oxygen
reaching the cells. Amplitude modulation is a signal processing technique that can be used for
de-noising signals. During amplitude modulation the original signal is multiplied by a carrier
signal which must have a much larger frequency than the highest frequency in the original signal
(fc > 2fmax). This results in carrying the original signal to a different frequency band which is
defined by the carrier signal. The modulation index controls the range of which the original
signal is to be carried.
There are many applications for amplitude modulation in medical signal processing. One
application is the detection of blood loss which is done using the AM of the PPG signal. [1]

References
[1] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22255583