Description of Signals

Abstract

Signals are everywhere. Literally. The universe is bathed in the background radiation, the remnant of the original Big Bang, and as your eyes scan this page, a signal is being transmitted to your brain, where different sets of neurons analyze and process it. All human activities are based on the processing and analysis of sensory signals, but the goal of this book is somewhat narrower. The signals we will be mainly interested in can be described as data resulting from quantitative measurements of some physical phenomena, and our emphasis will be on data that display randomness that may be due to different causes, be it errors of measurements, the algorithmic complexity, or the chaotic behavior of the underlying physical system itself.