Fundamentals

of
Digital Signal Processing
(DSP)

DSP is Everywhere!
Audiological equipment
Hearing aids
Otoacoustic systems
Audiometers
Aural rehabilitation programs
ABRs
Telecommunications
Cellular phones
Voice over Internet
Audio
CD, DVD, DAT players
MP3 players
Biomedical monitoring equipment
Digital Television

Analog vs Digital
Analog
infinitely detailed
continuous in time
continuous in amplitude

Digital
discrete numbers
discrete in time
discrete in amplitude

Challenge: a digital representation that

adequately maps the analog values.

Analog Systems
Acoustic
domain

Electric
domain

Acoustic
domain

Programmable Analog Systems

Acoustic
domain

Electric
domain

Acoustic
domain
Digital domain

Digital Systems
Acoustic
domain

Electrical
domain

Digital
domain

Electrical
domain

Acoustic
domain

Why digital?

Flexibility
Programmability
Reproducibility and Precision (??)
Advanced Signal Processing
Multichannel compression
Precise frequency shaping
Feedback cancellation
Noise reduction
Directional processing

DSP Applications
Digital signal
analysis/display
Digital recording,
processing, and
reproduction
Digital signal
synthesis

DSP Buzzwords

A to D Converter
D to A Converter
Sampling
Quantization
Aliasing
Anti-aliasing filter
Algorithm
Oversampling

Sampling Process
Analog Signal

Sampling Interval
(Ts)

Sampled Numbers

Analog-to-Digital Conversion
5

Analog

-5

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

0.9

Discrete

-5

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

0.9

-5

Digital
0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

0.9

Undersampling or Aliasing

Undersampling results in a form of distortion

termed as aliasing.

http://www.dsptutor.freeuk.com/aliasing/AliasingDemo.html

How to prevent aliasing?

Nyquist Criterion: When a signal is sampled,
the sampling rate must be greater than twice
the highest frequency of the input signal.
What if the highest frequency is unknown?
Use a low pass filter to remove unwanted
frequencies. Set the sampling rate greater than
twice the bandwidth of the low pass filter. The low
pass filter is called an anti-aliasing filter.

Quantization
The sampled values are converted into bit
representation
The process is called Quantization
The performance of a quantizer is
dependent on the number of bits, also
called bit resolution.

Binary Logical Circuits Flip Flops

#1

#2

#3

#4

ON

OFF

ON

OFF

Each of these values is called a bit.

The string of values 1010 is a binary
representation.
A string of 8 bits is called a byte.

An example of binary counting

20
15
10
5
0
-5
-10
-15
-20
0

0.2

0.4

0.6

Voltage
Flip Flop #1 Flip Flop #2
5 < V < 10 on (1)
on (1)
0<V<5
on (1)
off (0)
-5 < V < 0
off (0)
on (1)
-10 < V < -5
off (0)
off (0)

0.8

Binary
11
10
01
00

Dec
3
2
1
0

Example (contd.)
20

Analog fine grain signal

Voltage

15
10
5
0
-5
-10
-15

Decimal number

-20
0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

Digital quantized signal

4
3
2
1
0
-1
-2
0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

Example (contd.)
Analog fine grain signal

10

-5

-10
0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

Digital quantized signal

4
3
2
1
0
-1
-2
0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

3-bit Analog-to-Digital Converter

Voltage
7.5 < V <= 10
5 < V <= 7.5
2.5 < V <= 5
0 < V <= 2.5
-2.5 < V <= 0
-5 < V <= -2.5
-7.5 < V <= -5
-10 < V <= -7.5

#1

#2

on(1) on (1)
on(1) on (1)
on(1) off (0)
on(1) off (0)
off(0) on(1)
off(0) on(1)
off(0) off(0)
off(0) off(0)

#3
on(1)
off(0)
on(1)
off(0)
on(1)
off(0)
on(1)
off(0)

Binary Decimal
111
110
101
100
011 3
010
001
000

7
6
5
4
2
1
0

3-bit Quantization
10

-5

-10
0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

8
6
4
2
0
-2
0

Characteristics of an A/D Converter

Input range
The voltage range that the A/D converter can
handle. Can be unipolar (either +ve or ve
voltages), or bipolar (both +ve and ve)

Resolution
Represented by the number of bits. The
number of possible states is given by 2N, where
N is the number of bits.

Sampling Rate
Rate at which samples are measured.

Digital Signal Processing

A series of trigonometric and arithmetic
operations.
Series of steps called algorithm
Algorithm classes

Spectral analysis
Digital filtering
Coding and compressing data
Noise reduction
Etc.

Conclusions
Digital Signal Processing (DSP) is often used in
modern audiological equipment.
Fundamental concepts in DSP
Sampling discretization of the time axis
Quantization discretization of the amplitude axis

Digital Processing a series of instructions to

manipulate the digital numbers.