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1 - Introduction to DSP: 20F-ELEG631-610: Digital Signal Processing

1.1 - Introduction to DSP

This course introduces the fundamentals of digital signal processing (DSP). To first understand what
DSP is all about, we need to ask what we mean by a signal. A signal is some function of one, two, or
more independent variables. A signal with a one-dimensional independent variable is called a 1-
dimensional signal; a signal with a two-dimensional independent variable is a two-dimensional signal;
and so on. Here are some examples:

One-dimensional signal - output of a microphone

Two-dimensional signal - an image
Three-dimensional signal - a movie

Please click the tabs for descriptions of these additional categories of signals:

Continuous or Analog Signal

A signal, , is a one-dimensional continuous or analog signal if the independent variable,
t, and the dependent variable are continuous. For example, the output of a microphone is
continuous.

Discrete Signal
A signal is discrete if the independent variable is discrete, that is, it takes on a countable
number of values but the dependent variable is continuous.

An example of a discrete signal is an idealized analog-to-digital converter (ADC). An ideal

ADC takes the value of a continuous time signal at a specified point in time, . This is
ideal because such a device would require an infinite number of bits to represent the
continuous time signal without error.

Quantized Signal
A signal can be quantized if the dependent variable takes on one of a countable set of values
while the independent variable is continuous.

For example, the output of a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) produces a quantized signal.
The DAC takes a binary word with a fixed number of bits and converts it to an analog
voltage. That voltage is held until a new binary word is applied. Since the number of values

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3/9/2020 1.1 - Introduction to DSP: 20F-ELEG631-610: Digital Signal Processing

for the input to the DAC is finite, there is also a finite number of values for the voltages
produced.

Digital Signal

In a digital signal, both the independent and dependent variables take on only a countable
set of values. These are the signals developed with a computing device working on signals
produced from an actual ADC.

DSP is basically number crunching on digital signals, not in some random fashion, but in a
way that is designed to improve the understanding of information in a signal. The whole
purpose of DSP is to improve information that is in one of two forms:

1. Information in the time history of the signal or the values of

2. Information in the frequency characteristic of the signal

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