# Wavelet

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A wavelet is a wave-like oscillation with an amplitude that begins at zero, increases, and then decreases back to zero. It can typically be visualized as a "brief oscillation" like one recorded by a seismograph or heart monitor. Generally, wavelets are intentionally crafted to have specific properties that make them useful for signal processing. Using a "reverse, shift, multiply and integrate" technique called convolution, wavelets can be combined with known portions of a damaged signal to extract information from the unknown portions.

In physics, mathematics, and related fields, a wave is a disturbance of a field in which a physical attribute oscillates repeatedly at each point or propagates from each point to neighboring points, or seems to move through space.

Oscillation is the repetitive variation, typically in time, of some measure about a central value or between two or more different states. The term vibration is precisely used to describe mechanical oscillation. Familiar examples of oscillation include a swinging pendulum and alternating current.

The amplitude of a periodic variable is a measure of its change over a single period. There are various definitions of amplitude, which are all functions of the magnitude of the difference between the variable's extreme values. In older texts the phase is sometimes called the amplitude.

## Contents

For example, a wavelet could be created to have a frequency of Middle C and a short duration of roughly a 32nd note. If this wavelet were to be convolved with a signal created from the recording of a song, then the resulting signal would be useful for determining when the Middle C note was being played in the song. Mathematically, the wavelet will correlate with the signal if the unknown signal contains information of similar frequency. This concept of correlation is at the core of many practical applications of wavelet theory.

As a mathematical tool, wavelets can be used to extract information from many different kinds of data, including – but not limited to – audio signals and images. Sets of wavelets are generally needed to analyze data fully. A set of "complementary" wavelets will decompose data without gaps or overlap so that the decomposition process is mathematically reversible. Thus, sets of complementary wavelets are useful in wavelet based compression/decompression algorithms where it is desirable to recover the original information with minimal loss.

An audio signal is a representation of sound, typically using a level of electrical voltage for analog signals, and a series of binary numbers for digital signals. Audio signals have frequencies in the audio frequency range of roughly 20 to 20,000 Hz, which corresponds to the lower and upper limits of human hearing. Audio signals may be synthesized directly, or may originate at a transducer such as a microphone, musical instrument pickup, phonograph cartridge, or tape head. Loudspeakers or headphones convert an electrical audio signal back into sound.

In formal terms, this representation is a wavelet series representation of a square-integrable function with respect to either a complete, orthonormal set of basis functions, or an overcomplete set or frame of a vector space, for the Hilbert space of square integrable functions. This is accomplished through coherent states.

In mathematics, a square-integrable function, also called a quadratically integrable function, is a real- or complex-valued measurable function for which the integral of the square of the absolute value is finite. Thus, square-integrability on the real line is defined as follows.

In mathematics, a basis function is an element of a particular basis for a function space. Every continuous function in the function space can be represented as a linear combination of basis functions, just as every vector in a vector space can be represented as a linear combination of basis vectors.

The mathematical concept of a Hilbert space, named after David Hilbert, generalizes the notion of Euclidean space. It extends the methods of vector algebra and calculus from the two-dimensional Euclidean plane and three-dimensional space to spaces with any finite or infinite number of dimensions. A Hilbert space is an abstract vector space possessing the structure of an inner product that allows length and angle to be measured. Furthermore, Hilbert spaces are complete: there are enough limits in the space to allow the techniques of calculus to be used.

## Name

The word wavelet has been used for decades in digital signal processing and exploration geophysics. [1] The equivalent French word ondelette meaning "small wave" was used by Morlet and Grossmann in the early 1980s.

French is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the spoken Latin in Gaul, and more specifically in Northern Gaul. Its closest relatives are the other langues d'oïl—languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium, which French (Francien) has largely supplanted. French was also influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul like Gallia Belgica and by the (Germanic) Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. Today, owing to France's past overseas expansion, there are numerous French-based creole languages, most notably Haitian Creole. A French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as Francophone in both English and French.

Jean Morlet was a French geophysicist who pioneered work in the field of wavelet analysis around the year 1975. He invented the term wavelet to describe the functions he was using. In 1981, Morlet worked with Alex Grossman to develop what is now known as the Wavelet transform.

## Wavelet theory

Wavelet theory is applicable to several subjects. All wavelet transforms may be considered forms of time-frequency representation for continuous-time (analog) signals and so are related to harmonic analysis. Almost all practically useful discrete wavelet transforms use discrete-time filterbanks. These filter banks are called the wavelet and scaling coefficients in wavelets nomenclature. These filterbanks may contain either finite impulse response (FIR) or infinite impulse response (IIR) filters. The wavelets forming a continuous wavelet transform (CWT) are subject to the uncertainty principle of Fourier analysis respective sampling theory: Given a signal with some event in it, one cannot assign simultaneously an exact time and frequency response scale to that event. The product of the uncertainties of time and frequency response scale has a lower bound. Thus, in the scaleogram of a continuous wavelet transform of this signal, such an event marks an entire region in the time-scale plane, instead of just one point. Also, discrete wavelet bases may be considered in the context of other forms of the uncertainty principle.

Harmonic analysis is a branch of mathematics concerned with the representation of functions or signals as the superposition of basic waves, and the study of and generalization of the notions of Fourier series and Fourier transforms. In the past two centuries, it has become a vast subject with applications in areas as diverse as number theory, representation theory, signal processing, quantum mechanics, tidal analysis and neuroscience.

In signal processing, a finite impulse response (FIR) filter is a filter whose impulse response is of finite duration, because it settles to zero in finite time. This is in contrast to infinite impulse response (IIR) filters, which may have internal feedback and may continue to respond indefinitely.

Infinite impulse response (IIR) is a property applying to many linear time-invariant systems. Common examples of linear time-invariant systems are most electronic and digital filters. Systems with this property are known as IIR systems or IIR filters, and are distinguished by having an impulse response which does not become exactly zero past a certain point, but continues indefinitely. This is in contrast to a finite impulse response (FIR) in which the impulse response h(t) does become exactly zero at times t > T for some finite T, thus being of finite duration.

Wavelet transforms are broadly divided into three classes: continuous, discrete and multiresolution-based.

### Continuous wavelet transforms (continuous shift and scale parameters)

In continuous wavelet transforms, a given signal of finite energy is projected on a continuous family of frequency bands (or similar subspaces of the Lp function space L2(R) ). For instance the signal may be represented on every frequency band of the form [f, 2f] for all positive frequencies f > 0. Then, the original signal can be reconstructed by a suitable integration over all the resulting frequency components.

The frequency bands or subspaces (sub-bands) are scaled versions of a subspace at scale 1. This subspace in turn is in most situations generated by the shifts of one generating function ψ in L2(R), the mother wavelet. For the example of the scale one frequency band [1, 2] this function is

${\displaystyle \psi (t)=2\,\operatorname {sinc} (2t)-\,\operatorname {sinc} (t)={\frac {\sin(2\pi t)-\sin(\pi t)}{\pi t}}}$

with the (normalized) sinc function. That, Meyer's, and two other examples of mother wavelets are:

 Meyer
 Morlet
 Mexican hat

The subspace of scale a or frequency band [1/a, 2/a] is generated by the functions (sometimes called child wavelets)

${\displaystyle \psi _{a,b}(t)={\frac {1}{\sqrt {a}}}\psi \left({\frac {t-b}{a}}\right),}$

where a is positive and defines the scale and b is any real number and defines the shift. The pair (a, b) defines a point in the right halfplane R+ × R.

The projection of a function x onto the subspace of scale a then has the form

${\displaystyle x_{a}(t)=\int _{\mathbb {R} }WT_{\psi }\{x\}(a,b)\cdot \psi _{a,b}(t)\,db}$

with wavelet coefficients

${\displaystyle WT_{\psi }\{x\}(a,b)=\langle x,\psi _{a,b}\rangle =\int _{\mathbb {R} }x(t){\psi _{a,b}(t)}\,dt.}$

For the analysis of the signal x, one can assemble the wavelet coefficients into a scaleogram of the signal.

See a list of some Continuous wavelets.

### Discrete wavelet transforms (discrete shift and scale parameters)

It is computationally impossible to analyze a signal using all wavelet coefficients, so one may wonder if it is sufficient to pick a discrete subset of the upper halfplane to be able to reconstruct a signal from the corresponding wavelet coefficients. One such system is the affine system for some real parameters a > 1, b > 0. The corresponding discrete subset of the halfplane consists of all the points (am, namb) with m, n in Z. The corresponding child wavelets are now given as

${\displaystyle \psi _{m,n}(t)={\frac {1}{\sqrt {a^{m}}}}\psi \left({\frac {t-nb}{a^{m}}}\right).}$

A sufficient condition for the reconstruction of any signal x of finite energy by the formula

${\displaystyle x(t)=\sum _{m\in \mathbb {Z} }\sum _{n\in \mathbb {Z} }\langle x,\,\psi _{m,n}\rangle \cdot \psi _{m,n}(t)}$

is that the functions ${\displaystyle \{\psi _{m,n}:m,n\in \mathbb {Z} \}}$ form an orthonormal basis of L2(R).

### Multiresolution based discrete wavelet transforms

In any discretised wavelet transform, there are only a finite number of wavelet coefficients for each bounded rectangular region in the upper halfplane. Still, each coefficient requires the evaluation of an integral. In special situations this numerical complexity can be avoided if the scaled and shifted wavelets form a multiresolution analysis. This means that there has to exist an auxiliary function, the father wavelet φ in L2(R), and that a is an integer. A typical choice is a = 2 and b = 1. The most famous pair of father and mother wavelets is the Daubechies 4-tap wavelet. Note that not every orthonormal discrete wavelet basis can be associated to a multiresolution analysis; for example, the Journe wavelet admits no multiresolution analysis. [2]

From the mother and father wavelets one constructs the subspaces

${\displaystyle V_{m}=\operatorname {span} (\phi _{m,n}:n\in \mathbb {Z} ),{\text{ where }}\phi _{m,n}(t)=2^{-m/2}\phi (2^{-m}t-n)}$
${\displaystyle W_{m}=\operatorname {span} (\psi _{m,n}:n\in \mathbb {Z} ),{\text{ where }}\psi _{m,n}(t)=2^{-m/2}\psi (2^{-m}t-n).}$

The father wavelet ${\displaystyle V_{i}}$ keeps the time domain properties, while the mother wavelets ${\displaystyle W_{i}}$ keeps the frequency domain properties.

From these it is required that the sequence

${\displaystyle \{0\}\subset \dots \subset V_{1}\subset V_{0}\subset V_{-1}\subset V_{-2}\subset \dots \subset L^{2}(\mathbb {R} )}$

forms a multiresolution analysis of L2 and that the subspaces ${\displaystyle \dots ,W_{1},W_{0},W_{-1},\dots \dots }$ are the orthogonal "differences" of the above sequence, that is, Wm is the orthogonal complement of Vm inside the subspace Vm−1,

${\displaystyle V_{m}\oplus W_{m}=V_{m-1}.}$

In analogy to the sampling theorem one may conclude that the space Vm with sampling distance 2m more or less covers the frequency baseband from 0 to 2m-1. As orthogonal complement, Wm roughly covers the band [2m−1, 2m].

From those inclusions and orthogonality relations, especially ${\displaystyle V_{0}\oplus W_{0}=V_{-1}}$, follows the existence of sequences ${\displaystyle h=\{h_{n}\}_{n\in \mathbb {Z} }}$ and ${\displaystyle g=\{g_{n}\}_{n\in \mathbb {Z} }}$ that satisfy the identities

${\displaystyle g_{n}=\langle \phi _{0,0},\,\phi _{-1,n}\rangle }$ so that ${\displaystyle \phi (t)={\sqrt {2}}\sum _{n\in \mathbb {Z} }g_{n}\phi (2t-n),}$ and
${\displaystyle h_{n}=\langle \psi _{0,0},\,\phi _{-1,n}\rangle }$ so that ${\displaystyle \psi (t)={\sqrt {2}}\sum _{n\in \mathbb {Z} }h_{n}\phi (2t-n).}$

The second identity of the first pair is a refinement equation for the father wavelet φ. Both pairs of identities form the basis for the algorithm of the fast wavelet transform.

From the multiresolution analysis derives the orthogonal decomposition of the space L2 as

${\displaystyle L^{2}=V_{j_{0}}\oplus W_{j_{0}}\oplus W_{j_{0}-1}\oplus W_{j_{0}-2}\oplus W_{j_{0}-3}\oplus \dots }$

For any signal or function ${\displaystyle S\in L^{2}}$ this gives a representation in basis functions of the corresponding subspaces as

${\displaystyle S=\sum _{k}c_{j_{0},k}\phi _{j_{0},k}+\sum _{j\leq j_{0}}\sum _{k}d_{j,k}\psi _{j,k}}$

where the coefficients are

${\displaystyle c_{j_{0},k}=\langle S,\phi _{j_{0},k}\rangle }$ and
${\displaystyle d_{j,k}=\langle S,\psi _{j,k}\rangle }$.

## Mother wavelet

For practical applications, and for efficiency reasons, one prefers continuously differentiable functions with compact support as mother (prototype) wavelet (functions). However, to satisfy analytical requirements (in the continuous WT) and in general for theoretical reasons, one chooses the wavelet functions from a subspace of the space ${\displaystyle L^{1}(\mathbb {R} )\cap L^{2}(\mathbb {R} ).}$ This is the space of measurable functions that are absolutely and square integrable:

${\displaystyle \int _{-\infty }^{\infty }|\psi (t)|\,dt<\infty }$ and ${\displaystyle \int _{-\infty }^{\infty }|\psi (t)|^{2}\,dt<\infty .}$

Being in this space ensures that one can formulate the conditions of zero mean and square norm one:

${\displaystyle \int _{-\infty }^{\infty }\psi (t)\,dt=0}$ is the condition for zero mean, and
${\displaystyle \int _{-\infty }^{\infty }|\psi (t)|^{2}\,dt=1}$ is the condition for square norm one.

For ψ to be a wavelet for the continuous wavelet transform (see there for exact statement), the mother wavelet must satisfy an admissibility criterion (loosely speaking, a kind of half-differentiability) in order to get a stably invertible transform.

For the discrete wavelet transform, one needs at least the condition that the wavelet series is a representation of the identity in the space L2(R). Most constructions of discrete WT make use of the multiresolution analysis, which defines the wavelet by a scaling function. This scaling function itself is a solution to a functional equation.

In most situations it is useful to restrict ψ to be a continuous function with a higher number M of vanishing moments, i.e. for all integer m < M

${\displaystyle \int _{-\infty }^{\infty }t^{m}\,\psi (t)\,dt=0.}$

The mother wavelet is scaled (or dilated) by a factor of a and translated (or shifted) by a factor of b to give (under Morlet's original formulation):

${\displaystyle \psi _{a,b}(t)={1 \over {\sqrt {a}}}\psi \left({t-b \over a}\right).}$

For the continuous WT, the pair (a,b) varies over the full half-plane R+ × R; for the discrete WT this pair varies over a discrete subset of it, which is also called affine group.

These functions are often incorrectly referred to as the basis functions of the (continuous) transform. In fact, as in the continuous Fourier transform, there is no basis in the continuous wavelet transform. Time-frequency interpretation uses a subtly different formulation (after Delprat).

Restriction：

(1) ${\displaystyle {\frac {1}{\sqrt {a}}}\int _{-\infty }^{\infty }\varphi _{a1,b1}(t)\varphi \left({\frac {t-b}{a}}\right)\,dt}$ when a1 = a and b1 = b,

(2) ${\displaystyle \Psi (t)}$ has a finite time interval

## Comparisons with Fourier transform (continuous-time)

The wavelet transform is often compared with the Fourier transform, in which signals are represented as a sum of sinusoids. In fact, the Fourier transform can be viewed as a special case of the continuous wavelet transform with the choice of the mother wavelet ${\displaystyle \psi (t)=e^{-2\pi it}}$. The main difference in general is that wavelets are localized in both time and frequency whereas the standard Fourier transform is only localized in frequency. The Short-time Fourier transform (STFT) is similar to the wavelet transform, in that it is also time and frequency localized, but there are issues with the frequency/time resolution trade-off.

In particular, assuming a rectangular window region, one may think of the STFT as a transform with a slightly different kernel

${\displaystyle \psi (t)=g(t-u)e^{-2\pi it}}$

where ${\displaystyle g(t-u)}$ can often be written as ${\displaystyle {\rm {{rect}\left({\frac {t-u}{\Delta _{t}}}\right)}}}$, where ${\displaystyle \Delta _{t}}$ and u respectively denote the length and temporal offset of the windowing function. Using Parseval's theorem, one may define the wavelet's energy as

${\displaystyle E=\int _{-\infty }^{\infty }|\psi (t)|^{2}\,dt={\frac {1}{2\pi }}\int _{-\infty }^{\infty }|{\hat {\psi }}(\omega )|^{2}\,d\omega }$

From this, the square of the temporal support of the window offset by time u is given by

${\displaystyle \sigma _{t}^{2}={\frac {1}{E}}\int |t-u|^{2}|\psi (t)|^{2}\,dt}$

and the square of the spectral support of the window acting on a frequency ${\displaystyle \xi }$

${\displaystyle \sigma _{\omega }^{2}={\frac {1}{2\pi E}}\int |\omega -\xi |^{2}|{\hat {\psi }}(\omega )|^{2}\,d\omega }$

Multiplication with a rectangular window in the time domain corresponds to convolution with a ${\displaystyle {\rm {sinc(\Delta _{t}\omega )}}}$ function in the frequency domain, resulting in spurious ringing artifacts for short/localized temporal windows. With the continuous-time Fourier Transform, ${\displaystyle \Delta _{t}\rightarrow \infty }$ and this convolution is with a delta function in Fourier space, resulting in the true Fourier transform of the signal ${\displaystyle x(t)}$. The window function may be some other apodizing filter, such as a Gaussian. The choice of windowing function will affect the approximation error relative to the true Fourier transform.

A given resolution cell's time-bandwidth product may not be exceeded with the STFT. All STFT basis elements maintain a uniform spectral and temporal support for all temporal shifts or offsets, thereby attaining an equal resolution in time for lower and higher frequencies. The resolution is purely determined by the sampling width.

In contrast, the wavelet transform's multiresolutional properties enables large temporal supports for lower frequencies while maintaining short temporal widths for higher frequencies by the scaling properties of the wavelet transform. This property extends conventional time-frequency analysis into time-scale analysis. [3]

The discrete wavelet transform is less computationally complex, taking O(N) time as compared to O(N log N) for the fast Fourier transform. This computational advantage is not inherent to the transform, but reflects the choice of a logarithmic division of frequency, in contrast to the equally spaced frequency divisions of the FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) which uses the same basis functions as DFT (Discrete Fourier Transform). [4] It is also important to note that this complexity only applies when the filter size has no relation to the signal size. A wavelet without compact support such as the Shannon wavelet would require O(N2). (For instance, a logarithmic Fourier Transform also exists with O(N) complexity, but the original signal must be sampled logarithmically in time, which is only useful for certain types of signals. [5] )

## Definition of a wavelet

There are a number of ways of defining a wavelet (or a wavelet family).

### Scaling filter

An orthogonal wavelet is entirely defined by the scaling filter – a low-pass finite impulse response (FIR) filter of length 2N and sum 1. In biorthogonal wavelets, separate decomposition and reconstruction filters are defined.

For analysis with orthogonal wavelets the high pass filter is calculated as the quadrature mirror filter of the low pass, and reconstruction filters are the time reverse of the decomposition filters.

Daubechies and Symlet wavelets can be defined by the scaling filter.

### Scaling function

Wavelets are defined by the wavelet function ψ(t) (i.e. the mother wavelet) and scaling function φ(t) (also called father wavelet) in the time domain.

The wavelet function is in effect a band-pass filter and scaling that for each level halves its bandwidth. This creates the problem that in order to cover the entire spectrum, an infinite number of levels would be required. The scaling function filters the lowest level of the transform and ensures all the spectrum is covered. See [6] for a detailed explanation.

For a wavelet with compact support, φ(t) can be considered finite in length and is equivalent to the scaling filter g.

Meyer wavelets can be defined by scaling functions

### Wavelet function

The wavelet only has a time domain representation as the wavelet function ψ(t).

For instance, Mexican hat wavelets can be defined by a wavelet function. See a list of a few Continuous wavelets.

## History

The development of wavelets can be linked to several separate trains of thought, starting with Haar's work in the early 20th century. Later work by Dennis Gabor yielded Gabor atoms (1946), which are constructed similarly to wavelets, and applied to similar purposes. Notable contributions to wavelet theory can be attributed to Zweig’s discovery of the continuous wavelet transform in 1975 (originally called the cochlear transform and discovered while studying the reaction of the ear to sound), [7] Pierre Goupillaud, Grossmann and Morlet's formulation of what is now known as the CWT (1982), Jan-Olov Strömberg's early work on discrete wavelets (1983), the LeGall-Tabatabai (LGT) 5/3 wavelet developed by D. Le Gall and Ali J. Tabatabai (1988), [8] [9] [10] Ingrid Daubechies' orthogonal wavelets with compact support (1988), Mallat's multiresolution framework (1989), Akansu's Binomial QMF (1990), Nathalie Delprat's time-frequency interpretation of the CWT (1991), Newland's harmonic wavelet transform (1993) and many others since.

## Wavelet transforms

A wavelet is a mathematical function used to divide a given function or continuous-time signal into different scale components. Usually one can assign a frequency range to each scale component. Each scale component can then be studied with a resolution that matches its scale. A wavelet transform is the representation of a function by wavelets. The wavelets are scaled and translated copies (known as "daughter wavelets") of a finite-length or fast-decaying oscillating waveform (known as the "mother wavelet"). Wavelet transforms have advantages over traditional Fourier transforms for representing functions that have discontinuities and sharp peaks, and for accurately deconstructing and reconstructing finite, non-periodic and/or non-stationary signals.

Wavelet transforms are classified into discrete wavelet transforms (DWTs) and continuous wavelet transforms (CWTs). Note that both DWT and CWT are continuous-time (analog) transforms. They can be used to represent continuous-time (analog) signals. CWTs operate over every possible scale and translation whereas DWTs use a specific subset of scale and translation values or representation grid.

There are a large number of wavelet transforms each suitable for different applications. For a full list see list of wavelet-related transforms but the common ones are listed below:

### Generalized transforms

There are a number of generalized transforms of which the wavelet transform is a special case. For example, Yosef Joseph Segman introduced scale into the Heisenberg group, giving rise to a continuous transform space that is a function of time, scale, and frequency. The CWT is a two-dimensional slice through the resulting 3d time-scale-frequency volume.

Another example of a generalized transform is the chirplet transform in which the CWT is also a two dimensional slice through the chirplet transform.

An important application area for generalized transforms involves systems in which high frequency resolution is crucial. For example, darkfield electron optical transforms intermediate between direct and reciprocal space have been widely used in the harmonic analysis of atom clustering, i.e. in the study of crystals and crystal defects. [11] Now that transmission electron microscopes are capable of providing digital images with picometer-scale information on atomic periodicity in nanostructure of all sorts, the range of pattern recognition [12] and strain [13] /metrology [14] applications for intermediate transforms with high frequency resolution (like brushlets [15] and ridgelets [16] ) is growing rapidly.

Fractional wavelet transform (FRWT) is a generalization of the classical wavelet transform in the fractional Fourier transform domains. This transform is capable of providing the time- and fractional-domain information simultaneously and representing signals in the time-fractional-frequency plane. [17]

## Applications of wavelet transform

Generally, an approximation to DWT is used for data compression if a signal is already sampled, and the CWT for signal analysis. [18] Thus, DWT approximation is commonly used in engineering and computer science, and the CWT in scientific research.

Like some other transforms, wavelet transforms can be used to transform data, then encode the transformed data, resulting in effective compression. For example, JPEG 2000 is an image compression standard that uses biorthogonal wavelets. This means that although the frame is overcomplete, it is a tight frame (see types of frames of a vector space), and the same frame functions (except for conjugation in the case of complex wavelets) are used for both analysis and synthesis, i.e., in both the forward and inverse transform. For details see wavelet compression.

A related use is for smoothing/denoising data based on wavelet coefficient thresholding, also called wavelet shrinkage. By adaptively thresholding the wavelet coefficients that correspond to undesired frequency components smoothing and/or denoising operations can be performed.

Wavelet transforms are also starting to be used for communication applications. Wavelet OFDM is the basic modulation scheme used in HD-PLC (a power line communications technology developed by Panasonic), and in one of the optional modes included in the IEEE 1901 standard. Wavelet OFDM can achieve deeper notches than traditional FFT OFDM, and wavelet OFDM does not require a guard interval (which usually represents significant overhead in FFT OFDM systems). [19]

### As a representation of a signal

Often, signals can be represented well as a sum of sinusoids. However, consider a non-continuous signal with an abrupt discontinuity; this signal can still be represented as a sum of sinusoids, but requires an infinite number, which is an observation known as Gibbs phenomenon. This, then, requires an infinite number of Fourier coefficients, which is not practical for many applications, such as compression. Wavelets are more useful for describing these signals with discontinuities because of their time-localized behavior (both Fourier and wavelet transforms are frequency-localized, but wavelets have an additional time-localization property). Because of this, many types of signals in practice may be non-sparse in the Fourier domain, but very sparse in the wavelet domain. This is particularly useful in signal reconstruction, especially in the recently popular field of compressed sensing. (Note that the short-time Fourier transform (STFT) is also localized in time and frequency, but there are often problems with the frequency-time resolution trade-off. Wavelets are better signal representations because of multiresolution analysis.)

This motivates why wavelet transforms are now being adopted for a vast number of applications, often replacing the conventional Fourier transform. Many areas of physics have seen this paradigm shift, including molecular dynamics, chaos theory, [20] ab initio calculations, astrophysics, gravitational wave transient data analysis, [21] [22] density-matrix localisation, seismology, optics, turbulence and quantum mechanics. This change has also occurred in image processing, EEG, EMG, [23] ECG analyses, brain rhythms, DNA analysis, protein analysis, climatology, human sexual response analysis, [24] general signal processing, speech recognition, acoustics, vibration signals, [25] computer graphics, multifractal analysis, and sparse coding. In computer vision and image processing, the notion of scale space representation and Gaussian derivative operators is regarded as a canonical multi-scale representation.

### Wavelet denoising

Suppose we measure a noisy signal ${\displaystyle x=s+v}$. Assume s has a sparse representation in a certain wavelet bases, and ${\displaystyle v\ \sim \ {\mathcal {N}}(0,\,\sigma ^{2}I)}$

So ${\displaystyle y=W^{T}x=W^{T}s+W^{T}v=p+z}$.

Most elements in p are 0 or close to 0, and ${\displaystyle z\ \sim \ \ {\mathcal {N}}(0,\,\sigma ^{2}I)}$

Since W is orthogonal, the estimation problem amounts to recovery of a signal in iid Gaussian noise. As p is sparse, one method is to apply a Gaussian mixture model for p.

Assume a prior ${\displaystyle p\ \sim \ a{\mathcal {N}}(0,\,\sigma _{1}^{2})+(1-a){\mathcal {N}}(0,\,\sigma _{2}^{2})}$, ${\displaystyle \sigma _{1}^{2}}$ is the variance of "significant" coefficients, and ${\displaystyle \sigma _{2}^{2}}$ is the variance of "insignificant" coefficients.

Then ${\displaystyle {\tilde {p}}=E(p/y)=\tau (y)y}$, ${\displaystyle \tau (y)}$ is called the shrinkage factor, which depends on the prior variances ${\displaystyle \sigma _{1}^{2}}$ and ${\displaystyle \sigma _{2}^{2}}$. The effect of the shrinkage factor is that small coefficients are set early to 0, and large coefficients are unaltered.

Small coefficients are mostly noises, and large coefficients contain actual signal.

At last, apply the inverse wavelet transform to obtain ${\displaystyle {\tilde {s}}=W{\tilde {p}}}$

## Related Research Articles

In mathematics, the Haar wavelet is a sequence of rescaled "square-shaped" functions which together form a wavelet family or basis. Wavelet analysis is similar to Fourier analysis in that it allows a target function over an interval to be represented in terms of an orthonormal basis. The Haar sequence is now recognised as the first known wavelet basis and extensively used as a teaching example.

The Fourier transform (FT) decomposes a function of time into its constituent frequencies. This is similar to the way a musical chord can be expressed in terms of the volumes and frequencies of its constituent notes. The term Fourier transform refers to both the frequency domain representation and the mathematical operation that associates the frequency domain representation to a function of time. The Fourier transform of a function of time is itself a complex-valued function of frequency, whose magnitude (modulus) represents the amount of that frequency present in the original function, and whose argument is the phase offset of the basic sinusoid in that frequency. The Fourier transform is not limited to functions of time, but the domain of the original function is commonly referred to as the time domain. There is also an inverse Fourier transform that mathematically synthesizes the original function from its frequency domain representation.

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, the continuous wavelet transform (CWT) is a formal tool that provides an overcomplete representation of a signal by letting the translation and scale parameter of the wavelets vary continuously.

In numerical analysis and functional analysis, a discrete wavelet transform (DWT) is any wavelet transform for which the wavelets are discretely sampled. As with other wavelet transforms, a key advantage it has over Fourier transforms is temporal resolution: it captures both frequency and location information.

Coiflets are discrete wavelets designed by Ingrid Daubechies, at the request of Ronald Coifman, to have scaling functions with vanishing moments. The wavelet is near symmetric, their wavelet functions have vanishing moments and scaling functions , and has been used in many applications using Calderón-Zygmund operators.

A multiresolution analysis (MRA) or multiscale approximation (MSA) is the design method of most of the practically relevant discrete wavelet transforms (DWT) and the justification for the algorithm of the fast wavelet transform (FWT). It was introduced in this context in 1988/89 by Stephane Mallat and Yves Meyer and has predecessors in the microlocal analysis in the theory of differential equations and the pyramid methods of image processing as introduced in 1981/83 by Peter J. Burt, Edward H. Adelson and James L. Crowley.

In mathematics, a wavelet series is a representation of a square-integrable function by a certain orthonormal series generated by a wavelet. This article provides a formal, mathematical definition of an orthonormal wavelet and of the integral wavelet transform.

An orthogonal wavelet is a wavelet whose associated wavelet transform is orthogonal. That is, the inverse wavelet transform is the adjoint of the wavelet transform. If this condition is weakened one may end up with biorthogonal wavelets.

A Biorthogonal wavelet is a wavelet where the associated wavelet transform is invertible but not necessarily orthogonal. Designing biorthogonal wavelets allows more degrees of freedom than orthogonal wavelets. One additional degree of freedom is the possibility to construct symmetric wavelet functions.

Geophysical survey is the systematic collection of geophysical data for spatial studies. Detection and analysis of the geophysical signals forms the core of Geophysical signal processing. The magnetic and gravitational fields emanating from the Earth's interior hold essential information concerning seismic activities and the internal structure. Hence, detection and analysis of the electric and Magnetic fields is very crucial. As the Electromagnetic and gravitational waves are multi-dimensional signals, all the 1-D transformation techniques can be extended for the analysis of these signals as well. Hence this article also discusses multi-dimensional signal processing techniques.

Continuous wavelets of compact support can be built [1], which are related to the beta distribution. The process is derived from probability distributions using blur derivative. These new wavelets have just one cycle, so they are termed unicycle wavelets. They can be viewed as a soft variety of Haar wavelets whose shape is fine-tuned by two parameters and . Closed-form expressions for beta wavelets and scale functions as well as their spectra are derived. Their importance is due to the Central Limit Theorem by Gnedenko and Kolmogorov applied for compactly supported signals [2].

In the mathematics of signal processing, the harmonic wavelet transform, introduced by David Edward Newland in 1993, is a wavelet-based linear transformation of a given function into a time-frequency representation. It combines advantages of the short-time Fourier transform and the continuous wavelet transform. It can be expressed in terms of repeated Fourier transforms, and its discrete analogue can be computed efficiently using a fast Fourier transform algorithm.

In functional analysis, a Shannon wavelet may be either of real or complex type. Signal analysis by ideal bandpass filters defines a decomposition known as Shannon wavelets. The Haar and sinc systems are Fourier duals of each other.

The Mathieu equation is a linear second-order differential equation with periodic coefficients. The French mathematician, E. Léonard Mathieu, first introduced this family of differential equations, nowadays termed Mathieu equations, in his “Memoir on vibrations of an elliptic membrane” in 1868. "Mathieu functions are applicable to a wide variety of physical phenomena, e.g., diffraction, amplitude distortion, inverted pendulum, stability of a floating body, radio frequency quadrupole, and vibration in a medium with modulated density"

In the mathematical topic of wavelet theory, the cascade algorithm is a numerical method for calculating function values of the basic scaling and wavelet functions of a discrete wavelet transform using an iterative algorithm. It starts from values on a coarse sequence of sampling points and produces values for successively more densely spaced sequences of sampling points. Because it applies the same operation over and over to the output of the previous application, it is known as the cascade algorithm.

Overcompleteness is a concept from linear algebra that is widely used in mathematics, computer science, engineering, and statistics. It was introduced by R. J. Duffin and A. C. Schaeffer in 1952.

Fractional wavelet transform (FRWT) is a generalization of the classical wavelet transform (WT). This transform is proposed in order to rectify the limitations of the WT and the fractional Fourier transform (FRFT). The FRWT inherits the advantages of multiresolution analysis of the WT and has the capability of signal representations in the fractional domain which is similar to the FRFT.

In applied mathematical analysis, shearlets are a multiscale framework which allows efficient encoding of anisotropic features in multivariate problem classes. Originally, shearlets were introduced in 2006 for the analysis and sparse approximation of functions . They are a natural extension of wavelets, to accommodate the fact that multivariate functions are typically governed by anisotropic features such as edges in images, since wavelets, as isotropic objects, are not capable of capturing such phenomena.

In mathematics, in functional analysis, several different wavelets are known by the name Poisson wavelet. In one context, the term "Poisson wavelet" is used to denote a family of wavelets labeled by the set of positive integers, the members of which are associated with the Poisson probability distribution. These wavelets were first defined and studied by Karlene A. Kosanovich, Allan R. Moser and Michael J. Piovoso in 1995–96. In another context, the term refers to a certain wavelet which involves a form of the Poisson integral kernel. In a still another context, the terminology is used to describe a family of complex wavelets indexed by positive integers which are connected with the derivatives of the Poisson integral kernel.

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