3 ms·
Once you learn that everything can be looked at in the frequency domain, things can get pretty spicy. DSP was easily the most impactful coursework I ever took
by bob1029 4y ago
Once you learn that everything can be looked at in the frequency domain, things can get pretty spicy.
DSP was easily the most impactful coursework I ever took at university. It applies literally everywhere. Information theory is at the heart of it all, and once you start to see how it all fits together, entire realms of possibilities open their doors to you. In our course we did a lot of image and audio work to help demonstrate that this concept applies to any domain. Discrete/continuous time domain, Some array of bytes on disk, doesn't really matter. You just need some rational way to quantize & sample your data.
Also, as you get into control theory... more matrices! You can use state space representation (a matrix) to represent the entire valid control space of an N-dimensional system (albeit one that is LTI and where N < infinity).
- krylon 4y agoI remember the moment my brain went "So that's what some people need a fast multiply-accumulate for!"
- shuckles 4y agoDo you have any textbooks, course materials, or other references for these topics you'd recommend?
- LeonM 4y agoWhen I was an EE student (~2010), the book "Digital Signal Processing" by Steven W. Smith was considered to be the bible of DSP. You can read it for free online on his website here: https://www.dspguide.com/ https://www.dspguide.com/ or get a physical copy here https://www.amazon.com/Digital-Signal-Processing-Practical-Scientists/dp/075067444X https://www.amazon.com/Digital-Signal-Processing-Practical-S...
- bob1029 4y agoThe textbook that we used in the course was this one: https://www.amazon.com/Signal-Processing-First-James-McClellan/dp/0130909998 https://www.amazon.com/Signal-Processing-First-James-McClell... I don't think this is considered a fantastic book. The professor was simply amazing.
- mikewarot 4y agoIf you want to play with DSP, I highly recommend just playing around with GNU Radio, it works well with audio frequencies, and can use your sound devices for I/O. Finally understanding what a negative frequency really meant was an interesting shift in thought.