Decorrelation is a general term for any process that is used to reduce autocorrelation within a signal, or cross-correlation within a set of signals, while preserving other aspects of the signal.[ citation needed ] A frequently used method of decorrelation is the use of a matched linear filter to reduce the autocorrelation of a signal as far as possible. Since the minimum possible autocorrelation for a given signal energy is achieved by equalising the power spectrum of the signal to be similar to that of a white noise signal, this is often referred to as signal whitening.
Most decorrelation algorithms are linear, but there are also non-linear decorrelation algorithms.
Many data compression algorithms incorporate a decorrelation stage.[ citation needed ] For example, many transform coders first apply a fixed linear transformation that would, on average, have the effect of decorrelating a typical signal of the class to be coded, prior to any later processing. This is typically a Karhunen–Loève transform, or a simplified approximation such as the discrete cosine transform.
By comparison, sub-band coders do not generally have an explicit decorrelation step, but instead exploit the already-existing reduced correlation within each of the sub-bands of the signal, due to the relative flatness of each sub-band of the power spectrum in many classes of signals.
Linear predictive coders can be modelled as an attempt to decorrelate signals by subtracting the best possible linear prediction from the input signal, leaving a whitened residual signal.
Decorrelation techniques can also be used for many other purposes, such as reducing crosstalk in a multi-channel signal, or in the design of echo cancellers.
In image processing decorrelation techniques can be used to enhance or stretch, colour differences found in each pixel of an image. This is generally termed as 'decorrelation stretching'.
The concept of decorrelation can be applied in many other fields. In neuroscience, decorrelation is used in the analysis of the neural networks in the human visual system. In cryptography, it is used in cipher design (see Decorrelation theory) and in the design of hardware random number generators.
Autocorrelation, sometimes known as serial correlation in the discrete time case, is the correlation of a signal with a delayed copy of itself as a function of delay. Informally, it is the similarity between observations of a random variable as a function of the time lag between them. The analysis of autocorrelation is a mathematical tool for finding repeating patterns, such as the presence of a periodic signal obscured by noise, or identifying the missing fundamental frequency in a signal implied by its harmonic frequencies. It is often used in signal processing for analyzing functions or series of values, such as time domain signals.
In signal processing, white noise is a random signal having equal intensity at different frequencies, giving it a constant power spectral density. The term is used with this or similar meanings in many scientific and technical disciplines, including physics, acoustical engineering, telecommunications, and statistical forecasting. White noise refers to a statistical model for signals and signal sources, not to any specific signal. White noise draws its name from white light, although light that appears white generally does not have a flat power spectral density over the visible band.
Time stretching is the process of changing the speed or duration of an audio signal without affecting its pitch. Pitch scaling is the opposite: the process of changing the pitch without affecting the speed. Pitch shift is pitch scaling implemented in an effects unit and intended for live performance. Pitch control is a simpler process which affects pitch and speed simultaneously by slowing down or speeding up a recording.
In mathematics, a time series is a series of data points indexed in time order. Most commonly, a time series is a sequence taken at successive equally spaced points in time. Thus it is a sequence of discrete-time data. Examples of time series are heights of ocean tides, counts of sunspots, and the daily closing value of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
The Daubechies wavelets, based on the work of Ingrid Daubechies, are a family of orthogonal wavelets defining a discrete wavelet transform and characterized by a maximal number of vanishing moments for some given support. With each wavelet type of this class, there is a scaling function which generates an orthogonal multiresolution analysis.
In mathematics, a Boolean function is a function whose arguments and result assume values from a two-element set. Alternative names are switching function, used especially in older computer science literature, and truth function, used in logic. Boolean functions are the subject of Boolean algebra and switching theory.
Harmonic Vector Excitation Coding, abbreviated as HVXC is a speech coding algorithm specified in MPEG-4 Part 3 standard for very low bit rate speech coding. HVXC supports bit rates of 2 and 4 kbit/s in the fixed and variable bit rate mode and sampling frequency of 8 kHz. It also operates at lower bitrates, such as 1.2 - 1.7 kbit/s, using a variable bit rate technique. The total algorithmic delay for the encoder and decoder is 36 ms.
In audio engineering, electronics, physics, and many other fields, the color of noise or noise spectrum refers to the power spectrum of a noise signal. Different colors of noise have significantly different properties. For example, as audio signals they will sound different to human ears, and as images they will have a visibly different texture. Therefore, each application typically requires noise of a specific color. This sense of 'color' for noise signals is similar to the concept of timbre in music.
In signal processing, a filter bank is an array of bandpass filters that separates the input signal into multiple components, each one carrying a sub-band of the original signal. One application of a filter bank is a graphic equalizer, which can attenuate the components differently and recombine them into a modified version of the original signal. The process of decomposition performed by the filter bank is called analysis ; the output of analysis is referred to as a subband signal with as many subbands as there are filters in the filter bank. The reconstruction process is called synthesis, meaning reconstitution of a complete signal resulting from the filtering process.
A maximum length sequence (MLS) is a type of pseudorandom binary sequence.
A pitch detection algorithm (PDA) is an algorithm designed to estimate the pitch or fundamental frequency of a quasiperiodic or oscillating signal, usually a digital recording of speech or a musical note or tone. This can be done in the time domain, the frequency domain, or both.
In telecommunication technology, a Barker code or Barker sequence is a finite sequence of digital values with the ideal autocorrelation property. It is used as a synchronising pattern between the sender and receiver of a stream of bits.
The efficient coding hypothesis was proposed by Horace Barlow in 1961 as a theoretical model of sensory coding in the brain. Within the brain, neurons communicate with one another by sending electrical impulses referred to as action potentials or spikes. One goal of sensory neuroscience is to decipher the meaning of these spikes in order to understand how the brain represents and processes information about the outside world.
A whitening transformation or sphering transformation is a linear transformation that transforms a vector of random variables with a known covariance matrix into a set of new variables whose covariance is the identity matrix, meaning that they are uncorrelated and each have variance 1. The transformation is called "whitening" because it changes the input vector into a white noise vector.
Surrogate data testing is a statistical proof by contradiction technique similar to permutation tests and parametric bootstrapping. It is used to detect non-linearity in a time series. The technique involves specifying a null hypothesis describing a linear process and then generating several surrogate data sets according to using Monte Carlo methods. A discriminating statistic is then calculated for the original time series and all the surrogate set. If the value of the statistic is significantly different for the original series than for the surrogate set, the null hypothesis is rejected and non-linearity assumed.
The Blackman–Tukey transformation is a digital signal processing method to transform data from the time domain to the frequency domain. It was originally programmed around 1953 by James Cooley for John Tukey at John von Neumann's Institute for Advanced Study as a way to get "good smoothed statistical estimates of power spectra without requiring large Fourier transforms." It was published by Ralph Beebe Blackman and John Tukey in 1958.
Multidimension spectral estimation is a generalization of spectral estimation, normally formulated for one-dimensional signals, to multidimensional signals or multivariate data, such as wave vectors.
ZPEG is a motion video technology that applies a human visual acuity model to a decorrelated transform-domain space, thereby optimally reducing the redundancies in motion video by removing the subjectively imperceptible. This technology is applicable to a wide range of video processing problems such as video optimization, real-time motion video compression, subjective quality monitoring, and format conversion.
Computational imaging is the process of indirectly forming images from measurements using algorithms that rely on a significant amount of computing. In contrast to traditional imaging, computational imaging systems involve a tight integration of the sensing system and the computation in order to form the images of interest. The ubiquitous availability of fast computing platforms, the advances in algorithms and modern sensing hardware is resulting in imaging systems with significantly enhanced capabilities. Computational Imaging systems cover a broad range of applications include computational microscopy, tomographic imaging, MRI, ultrasound imaging, computational photography, Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), seismic imaging etc. The integration of the sensing and the computation in computational imaging systems allows for accessing information which was otherwise not possible. For example: