Castillo, Edith A.

October 11, 2017

EC41FA1/ECE 401 Engr. Malit

Reflection Paper
In this course, I have learned many things about Digital Signal Processing.

First, I have learned that signals can be generated and can be calculated through LabVIEW
and Matlab. MATLAB is a high-performance language for technical computing. It integrates
computation, visualization, and programming in an easy-to-use environment where problems and
solutions are expressed in familiar mathematical notation. Laboratory Virtual Instrument
Engineering Workbench (LabVIEW) is a system-design platform and development environment
for a visual programming language from National Instruments.

Second, I have learned that Digital signal processing (DSP) refers to various techniques
for improving the accuracy and reliability of digital communications. The theory behind DSP is
quite complex. Basically, DSP works by clarifying, or standardizing, the levels or states of a digital
signal. Anything which carries information is a signal. In this course we will learn some of the
mathematical representations of the signals, which has been found very useful in making
information processing systems. Examples of signals are human voice, chirping of birds, smoke
signals, gestures (sign language), fragrances of the flowers. Many of our body functions are
regulated by chemical signals, blind people use sense of touch. Bees communicate by their
dancing pattern. Some examples of modern high speed signals are the voltage charger in a
telephone wire, the electromagnetic field emanating from a transmitting antenna, variation of
light intensity in an optical fiber. Thus we see that there is an almost endless variety of signals
and a large number of ways in which signals are carried from place to another place.

In this course, I have learned that signal is a real (or complex) valued function of one or
more real variable(s). When the function depends on a single variable, the signal is said to be
one dimensional. A speech signal, daily maximum temperature, annual rainfall at a place, are all
examples of a one dimensional signal. When the function depends on two or more variables, the
signal is said to be multidimensional. An image is representing the two dimensional signal, vertical
and horizontal coordinates representing the two dimensions. Our physical world is four
dimensional(three spatial and one temporal). Signal is the main recipe in Digital Signal
Processing, of course.

By processing we mean operating in some fashion on a signal to extract some useful

information. For example when we hear same thing we use our ears and auditory path ways in
the brain to extract the information. The signal is processed by a system. In the example
mentioned above the system is biological in nature. We can use an electronic system to try to
mimic this behavior. The signal processor may be an electronic system, a mechanical system or
even it might be a computer program. The word digital in digital signal processing means that
the processing is done either by a digital hardware or by a digital computer.

The signal processing operations involved in many applications like communication

systems, control systems, instrumentation, biomedical signal processing etc can be implemented
in two different ways: Analog or continuous time method and Digital or discrete time method.
 There are lots of classifications of signals. Those signals can be generated through
LabVIEW and Matlab.

I learned also the convolution sum and z transform. Convolution is a mathematical way
of combining two signals to form a third signal. It is the single most important technique in Digital
Signal Processing. Using the strategy of impulse decomposition, systems are described by a signal
called the impulse response. In mathematics and signal processing, the Z-transform converts a
discrete-time signal, which is a sequence of real or complex numbers, into a complex frequency
domain representation. It can be considered as a discrete-time equivalent of the Laplace
transform.

In this semester, I am very nurtured in the knowledge about this course. The only
requirement is patience for the lesson to absorb, eagerness to learn and determination to pass.