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Intro. to Signal Processing:Convolution

Fourier Convolution
Convolution is an operation performed on two signals which involves multiplying one signal by a delayed or shifted version of another signal, integrating or averaging the product, and repeating the process for different delays. Convolution is a useful process because it accurately describes some effects that occur widely in scientific measurements, such as the influence of a low-pass filter on an electrical signal or of the spectral bandpass of a spectrometer on the shape of a spectrum.

Figure 11. Fourier convolution is used here to determine how the atomic line spectrum in Window 1 (top left) will appear when scanned with a spectrometer whose slit function (spectral resolution) is described by the Gaussian function in Window 2 (top right). The Gaussian function has already been rotated so that its maximum falls at x=0. The resulting convoluted spectrum (bottom center) shows that the two lines near x=110 and 120 will not be resolved but the line at x=40 will be partly resolved. In practice, the calculation is usually performed by point-by-point multiplication of the two signals in the Fourier domain. First, the Fourier transform of each signal is obtained. Then the two Fourier transforms are multiplied point-by-point by the rules for complex multiplication and the result is then inverse Fourier transformed. Fourier transforms are usually expressed in terms of complex numbers, with real and imaginary parts; if the Fourier
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Intro. to Signal Processing:Convolution

transform of the first signal is a + ib, and the Fourier transform of the second signal is c + id, then the product of the two Fourier transforms is (a + ib)(c + id) = (ac - bd) + i(bc + ad). Although this seems to be a round-about method, it turns out to be faster then the shift-and-multiply algorithm when the number of points in the signal is large. Convolution can be used as a powerful and general algorithm for smoothing and differentiation. The example of Figure 11 shows how it can be used to predict the broadening effect of a spectrometer on an atomic line spectrum. In the Tfit method for absorption spectroscopy (TFit.html), Fourier convolution is used to correct the analytical curve non-linearity caused by spectrometer resolution. SPECTRUM, the freeware signal-processing application that accompanies this tutorial, includes convolution and auto-correlation (self-convolution) functions. Spreadsheets can be used to perform "shift-and-multiply" convolution for small data sets (for example, MultipleConvolution.xls or MultipleConvolution.xlsx for Excel and MultipleConvolutionOO.ods for Calc), but for larger data sets the performance is much slower that Fourier convolution (which is much easier done in Matlab or Octave than in spreadsheets). Matlab and Octave have a built-in function for convolution of two vectors: conv. This function can be used to create very general type of filters and smoothing functions, such as sliding-average and triangular smooths. For example, y s m o o t h e d = c o n v ( y , [ 11111 ] , ' s a m e ' ) . / 5 ; smooths the vector y with a 5-point unweighted sliding average (boxcar) smooth, and y s m o o t h e d = c o n v ( y , [ 12321 ] , ' s a m e ' ) . / 9 ; smooths the vector y with a 5-point triangular smooth. The optional argument 'same' returns the central part of the convolution that is the same size as y. The keyword 'same' returns the central part of the convolution that is the same size as y. Differentiation is carried out with smoothing by using a convolution vector in which the first half of the coefficients are negative and the second half are positive (e.g.[ 101 ] , [ 21012 ] , or [ 32101 23 ] ) to compute a first derivative with increasing amounts of smoothing. The next example creates an exponential trailing transfer function (c), which has an effect similar to a simple RC low-pass filter, and applies it to y.
c = e x p ( ( 1 : l e n g t h ( y ) ) . / 3 0 ) ; y c = c o n v ( y , c , ' f u l l ' ) . / s u m ( c ) ;

In each of the above three examples, the result of the convolution is divided by the sum of the convolution transfer function, in order to insure that the convolution has a net gain of 1.000 and thus does not effect the area under the curve of the signal.

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Intro. to Signal Processing:Convolution

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