DSP I By Asst., Prof.

Maha George

Lec:1 Introduction to Digital Signal Processing

1.1 Basic Concepts of Digital Signal Processing

Digital signal processing (DSP) technology and its advancements have dramatically
impacted our modern society everywhere. Without DSP, we would not have digital/Internet audio or
video; digital recording; CD, DVD, and MP3 players; digital cameras; digital and cellular
telephones; digital satellite and TV; or wire and wireless networks. Medical instruments would be
less efficient or unable to provide useful information for precise diagnoses if there were no digital
electrocardiography (ECG) analyzers or digital x-rays and medical image systems. We would also
live in many less efficient ways, since we would not be equipped with voice recognition systems,
speech synthesis systems, and image and video editing systems. Without DSP, scientists, engineers,
and technologists would have no powerful tools to analyze and visualize data and perform their
design, and so on.

The concept of DSP is illustrated by the simplified block diagram in Fig. (1.1), which
consists of an analog filter, an analog-to-digital conversion (ADC) unit, a digital signal (DS)
processor, a digital-to-analog conversion (DAC) unit, and a reconstruction (anti-image) filter.
As shown in the diagram, the analog input signal, which is continuous in time and amplitude,
is generally encountered in our real life. Examples of such analog signals include current, voltage,
temperature, pressure, and light intensity.
Usually a transducer (sensor) is used to convert the non-electrical signal to the analog
electrical signal (voltage). This analog signal is fed to an analog filter, which is applied to limit the
frequency range of analog signals prior to the sampling process. The purpose of filtering is to
significantly attenuate aliasing distortion.
The band-limited signal at the output of the analog filter is then sampled and converted via
the ADC unit into the digital signal, which is discrete both in time and in amplitude.

1
DSP I By Asst., Prof. Maha George

The DS processor then accepts the digital signal and processes the digital data according to
DSP rules such as lowpass, highpass, and bandpass digital filtering, or other algorithms for different
applications. Notice that the DS processor unit is a special type of digital computer and can be a
general-purpose digital computer, a microprocessor, or an advanced microcontroller; furthermore,
DSP rules can be implemented using software in general.
With the DS processor and corresponding software, a processed digital output signal is
generated. This signal behaves in a manner according to the specific algorithm used
The DAC unit converts the processed digital signal to an analog output signal. The signal is
continuous in time and discrete in amplitude (usually a sample-and-hold signal). The final block in
Fig. (1.1) is designated as a function to smooth the DAC output voltage levels back to the analog
signal via a reconstruction (anti-image) filter for real-world applications.
1.2 Basic Digital Signal Processing

1.2.1 Digital Filtering

Consider the situation shown in Fig. (1.2), of a digitized noisy signal containing a useful
low-frequency signal and noise that occupies all of the frequency range. After ADC, the digitized
noisy signal x(n), where n is the sample number, can be enhanced using digital filtering. Since our
useful signal contains the low-frequency component, the high frequency components above that of
our useful signal are considered as noise, which can be removed by using a digital lowpass filter.
After processing the digitized noisy signal x(n), the digital lowpass filter produces a clean
digital signal y(n). The cleaned signal y(n) is applied to another DSP algorithm for a different
application or convert it to the analog signal via DAC and the reconstruction filter.
The digitized noisy signal and clean digital signal, respectively, are plotted in Fig. (1.3),
where the top plot shows the digitized noisy signal, x(n), while the bottom plot demonstrates the
clean digital signal ,y(n), obtained by applying the digital lowpass filter.

2
DSP I By Asst., Prof. Maha George

1.2.2 Signal Frequency (Spectrum) Analysis

As shown in Figure 1.4, certain DSP applications often require that time domain information
and the frequency content of the signal be analyzed.

Figure 1.5 shows a digitized audio signal and its calculated signal spectrum (frequency
content), defined as the signal amplitude versus its corresponding frequency. It is also called fast
Fourier transform (FFT).

Figure 1.5 Audio signal and its spectrum

3
DSP I By Asst., Prof. Maha George

The plot in Figure 1.5 (a) is a time domain display of the recorded audio signal with
frequency of 1,000 Hz sampled at 16,000 samples per second, while the frequency content display
of plot (b) displays the calculated signal spectrum versus frequencies, in which the peak amplitude is
clearly located at 1,000 Hz.
As another practical example, we often perform spectral estimation of a digitally recorded
speech or audio (music) waveform using the FFT algorithm in order to investigate spectral
frequency details of speech information. Figure 1.6 shows a speech signal produced by a human in
the time domain and frequency content displays. The top plot shows the digital speech waveform
versus its digitized sample number, while the bottom plot shows the frequency content information
of speech for a range from 0 to 4,000 Hz. We can observe that there are about ten spectral peaks,
called speech formants, in the range between 0 and 1,500 Hz. Those identified speech formants can
be used for applications such as speech modeling, speech coding, and speech feature extraction for
speech synthesis and recognition,

Figure 1.6 Speech sample and speech spectrum

4
DSP I By Asst., Prof. Maha George

1.3 Digital Signal Processing Applications

The list below by no means covers all DSP applications. Many more areas are increasingly
being explored by engineers and scientists. Applications of DSP techniques will continue to have
profound impacts and improve our lives.
1. Digital audio and speech: Digital audio coding such as CD players, digital crossover, digital
audio equalizers, digital stereo and surround sound, noise reduction systems, speech coding,
data compression and encryption, speech synthesis and speech recognition.
2. Digital telephone: Speech recognition, high-speed modems, echo cancellation, speech
synthesizers, DTMF (dual-tone multi frequency) generation and detection, answering
machines.
3. Automobile industry: Active noise control systems, active suspension systems, digital audio
and radio, digital controls.
4. Electronic communications: Cellular phones, digital telecommunications, wireless LAN
(local area networking), satellite communications.
5. Medical imaging equipment: ECG analyzers, cardiac monitoring, medical imaging and
image recognition, digital x-rays and image processing.
6. Multimedia: Internet phones, audio, and video; hard disk drive electronics; digital pictures;
digital cameras; text-to-voice and voice-to-text technologies