Aliasing

Its easiest to describe aliasing in terms of a visual sampling system we all know
and lovemovies. If youve ever watched a western and seen the wheel of a rolling
wagon appear to be going backwards, youve witnessed aliasing. The movies frame
rate isnt adequate to describe the rotational frequency of the wheel, and our eyes
are deceived by the misinformation!

The Nyquist Theorem tells us that we can successfully sample and play back
frequency components up to one-half the sampling frequency. Aliasing is the term
used to describe what happens when we try to record and play back frequencies
higher than one-half the sampling rate.

Aliasing is an effect that causes different signals to become indistinguishable from

each other during sampling. Aliasing is characterized by the altering of output
compared to the original signal because resampling or interpolation resulted in a
lower resolution in images, a slower frame rate in terms of video or a lower wave
resolution in audio. Anti-aliasing filters can be used to correct this problem.

Aliasing is a potential problem whenever an analog signal is point sampled to

convert it into a digital signal. It can occur in audio sampling, for example, in
converting music to digital form to be stored on a CD-ROM or other digital device.
Aliasing happens whenever an analog signal is not sampled at a high enough
frequency. In audio, Aliasing manifests itself in the form of spurious low frequencies.
An example is shown below of two sin waves.

False frequencies created by poor sampling of an input signal.

In a digital image, aliasing manifests itself as a moir pattern or a rippling

effect. This spatial aliasing in the pattern of the image makes it look like it
has waves or ripples radiating from a certain portion. This happens because
the pixelation of the image is poor; when our eyes interpolate those pixels,
they simply do not look right.

Aliasing can also occur in videos, where it is called temporal aliasing

because it is caused by the frequency of the frames rather than the pixelation
of the image. Because of the limited frame rate, a fast-moving object like a
wheel looks like its turning in reverse or too slowly; this is called the wagonwheel effect. This is determined by the frame rate of the camera and can be
avoided by using temporal aliasing reduction filters during filming.

In audio, aliasing is the result of a lower resolution sampling, which

translates to poor sound quality and static. This occurs when audio is
sampled at a lower resolution than the original recording. When the
sinusoidal audio wave is converted to a digital wave using a lower resolution
sample, only a few specific points of the wave are taken as data. This results
in a wave with a lower frequency than the original, translating to a loss of
data and audio quality.

Consider a digital audio system with a sample rate of 48 KHz, recording a steadily
rising sine wave tone. At lower frequency, the tone is sampled with many points per
cycle. As the tone rises in frequency, the cycles get shorter and fewer and fewer
points are available to describe it. At a frequency of 24 KHz, only two sample points
are available per cycle, and we are at the limit of what Nyquist says we can do. Still,
those two points are adequate, in a theoretical world, to recreate the tone after
conversion back to analog and low-pass filtering.
But, if the tone continues to rise, the number of samples per cycle is not adequate
to describe the waveform, and the inadequate description is equivalent to one
describing a lower frequency tonethis is aliasing.
In fact, the tone seems to reflect around the 24 KHz point. A 25 KHz tone becomes
indistinguishable from a 23 KHz tone. A 30 KHz tone becomes an 18 KHz tone.

In music, with its many frequencies and harmonics, aliased components mix with
the real frequencies to yield a particularly obnoxious form of distortion. And theres
no way to undo the damage. Thats why we take steps to avoid aliasing from the
beginning.

TO AVOID ALIASING:

A more practical alternative is to limit the bandwidth of the signal below onehalf the sample rate with a low-pass or anti-alias filter, which can be implemented
on each input channel in front of the A/D converter. Low-pass filtering must be done
before the signal is sampled or multiplexed, since there is no way to retrieve the
original signal once it has been digitized and aliased signals have been created.
Aliasing is an effect of violating the Nyquist-Shannon sampling theory. During
sampling the base band spectrum of the sampled signal is mirrored to every
multifold of the sampling frequency. These mirrored spectra are called alias. If the
signal spectrum reaches farther than half the sampling frequency base band
spectrum and aliases touch each other and the base band spectrum gets
superimposed by the first alias spectrum. The easiest way to prevent aliasing is the
application of a steep sloped low-pass filter with half the sampling frequency before
the conversion. Aliasing can be avoided by keeping Fs>2Fmax.

The aliasing problem can be avoided when sampling audio by applying

Nyquists Theorem.

Sampling should be done at TWICE the rate of the maximum frequency

present in the original signal.

In computer graphics, the resolution of the rasterised image replaces the

sampling rate seen in the audio example.

To apply Nyquist would require the output device to have a resolution double
that which is discernable to the human visual system.

Technology is not currently at this level, so alternatives must be sought.

DIGITAL COMPRESSION

A process for encoding digitized audio or video signals so that the amount of
information transmitted can be increased and carried on a lower capacity
communications system, taking up less storage and requiring less bandwidth for
efficient transmission.
Digital television broadcasting has to happen, because service providers can
no longer afford the limitations of traditional analog transmission. The broadcaster
has to find a more spectrum efficient technology. One of the fundamentals of
efficient use of spectrum is compression; digital compression is a way of expressing
digital audio & video by using less data. Compression theory suggests that the more
effective the reduction in bandwidth has to be, the more complex signal processing
at lower cost than for broadcasting using the analog techniques. Digital technology
is extremely powerful in the delivery application. Digital delivery channel are
designed to replicate the original bit patterns at the end of a channel exists, error
connection can be employed to rectify any bits which are corrupted. Consequently a
digital delivery channel working within its specification has no quality at all. It
simply transfers the inherent quality of the input signal to another place for the
given specifications. One initial success of digital video was in post-production
applications, where the high cost of digital video was offset by its limitless layering
and effect capabilities. However, production standard digital video generates over
200 megabits per second of data and this bit rate requires extensive capacity and
wide bandwidth for transmission. To fulfill the spectrum efficient technology
requirements, digital video could be used if the bandwidth requirements could be
eased; easing these requirements is the purpose of compression. The active region
of a digital television frame, sampled according to CCIR recommendation 601, is
702 pixel by 576 lines for a frame rate of 25 Hz using 8 bit for luminance &
chrominance component the uncompressed bit rates become In 4:2:2
720x576x25x8+360 x576x25x8 (8+8) = 166 Mbit/s. Using the various compression
techniques these can be bring down to 3-15 Mbit/s. For digital broadcasting of
standard definition video, a bit rate of around 6 Mbit/s is thought to be good
compromise between picture quality and transmission bandwidth efficiency. At the
lower bit rates in this range, the impairments introduced by coding and decoding
process become increasingly objectionable.

REFERENCES:
http://www.techopedia.com/definition/1943/aliasing
http://www.earlevel.com/main/1996/10/20/what-is-aliasing/
http://www.scatmag.com/technical/digital%20compression.pdf

RIZAL TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF ENGG & INDUSTRIAL TECH.
Boni Avenue, City of Mandaluyong

Digital Communications
H / 07:30A-10:30A

ALIASING & DIGITAL COMPRESSION

RESEARCH #2

Sumitted by:
Gala, Chara C.
Submitted to:
Engr. Jenny Aruta
Date Submitted:
January 08, 2015