14 September 2016

Transposing vectors of complex numbers in Matlab

Careful when applying the transpose (apostophe) operator to a vector of complex numbers. See here:

You have to use .' (dot transpose)
If you use the tranpose operator on a complex-valued vector, matrix in MATLAB, it returns the conjugate transpose by default.


01 September 2016

Correlation vs Convolution

This is a basic relationship in DSP.

When we talk about similarity between signals, we normally talk about "correlation".
When we talk about filtering, in the time domain that's a "convolution".

Correlation and convolution are basically the same thing.
The only difference is that correlation is a convolution by the inverted (or flipped) version of the same signal in the time domain:

y(n) = h(n)*x(n) --> convolution
y(n)=h(n)*x(-n) -> correlation

In Matlab/Octave that would be:

y = conv( h, x) for convolution

or

y = conv( h, flip(x)) for correlation.

In the frequency domain, the operation of flipping in the time domain translates into the "conjugate" version of the transform, that is with an inverted sign for its imaginary part.