Preface (Signal Processing Toolbox)

Signal Processing Toolbox

How to Use This Manual

This section explains how to use the documentation to get help about the Signal Processing Toolbox. Read the topic that best fits your skill level:

If You Are a New User

Begin with Signal Processing Basics which introduces the MATLAB signal processing environment through the toolbox functions. It describes the basic functions of the Signal Processing Toolbox, reviewing its use in basic waveform generation, filter implementation and analysis, impulse and frequency response, zero-pole analysis, linear system models, and the discrete Fourier transform.

When you feel comfortable with the basic functions, move on to Chapter 2, "Filter Design and Implementation" and Chapter 3, "Statistical Signal Processing" for a more in-depth introduction to using the Signal Processing Toolbox:

Filter Design and Implementation for a detailed explanation of using the Signal Processing Toolbox in infinite impulse response (IIR) and finite impulse response (FIR) filter design and implementation, including special topics in IIR filter design.
Statistical Signal Processing for how to use the correlation, covariance, and spectral analysis tools to estimate important functions of discrete random signals.

Once you understand the general principles and applications of the toolbox, learn how to use the interactive tools:

Filter Design and Analysis Tool and SPTool: A Signal Processing GUI Suite for an overview of the interactive GUI environments and examples of how to use them for signal exploration, filter design and implementation, and spectral analysis.

Finally, see the following chapter:

Special Topics, for specialized functions, including filter windows, parametric modeling, resampling, cepstrum analysis, time-dependent Fourier transforms and spectrograms, median filtering, communications applications, deconvolution, and specialized transforms.

If You Are an Experienced Toolbox User

See Filter Design and Analysis Tool, and SPTool: A Signal Processing GUI Suite, for an overview of the interactive GUI environments and examples of how to use them for signal viewing, filter design and implementation, and spectral analysis.

All Toolbox Users

Use the Function Reference for locating information on specific functions. Reference descriptions include a synopsis of the function's syntax, as well as a complete explanation of options and operations. Many reference descriptions also include helpful examples, a description of the function's algorithm, and references to additional reading material.

Use this manual in conjunction with the software to learn about the powerful features that MATLAB provides. Each chapter provides numerous examples that apply the toolbox to representative signal processing tasks.

Some examples use the MATLAB random number generation function randn. In these cases, to duplicate the results in the example, type

```
randn('state',0)
```

before running the example.

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