Signals, Systems and Information for Media Technology

Syllabus

Course Meeting Times

Lectures: 2 sessions / week, 1.5 hours / session

Recitations: 1 session / week, 1 hour / session

Combined Undergraduate/Graduate Subject

The undergraduate and graduate versions of this class meet together. MAS.160 is the undergraduate subject number. The graduate version has additional assignments, and is split into a pair of half-semester subjects, MAS.510 and MAS.511.

First Half: MAS.510 Signals, Systems, and Information for Media Technology

• Fundamentals of signals and information theory with emphasis on modeling audio/visual messages and physiologically derived signals, including sampling, sampling rate conversion, reconstruction, quantization, Fourier analysis, entropy, and noise. Shannon’s fundamental theorems.

Second Half: MAS.511 Systems and Signal Processing for Media Technology

• Fundamentals of signal processing and linear systems theory as applied to audio/visual messages and physiologically-derived signals. Linear systems, difference equation, Z-transforms, convolution, filtering. Additional topics may include filter design, feature detection, communication systems.

Prerequisites

18.02 Calculus II

For MAS.511, the prerequisite is either MAS.510 or 6.003 Circuits and Systems.

Texts

Required

McClellan, J. H., R. W. Schafer, and M. A. Yoder. DSP First: A Multimedia Approach. East Rutherford, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1998. ISBN: 9780132431712.

Shannon, C. E., and W. Weaver. The Mathematical Theory of Communication. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1998. ISBN: 9780252725463. [Download a copy of the original 1948 paper by Shannon (PDF - 4.43MB), upon which the book is based, from Bell Labs.]

Recommended for those who want more help

Karu, Zoher Z. Signals and Systems Made Ridiculously Simple. Huntsville, AL: ZiZi Press, 1995. ISBN: 9780964375215.

Computer Facilities

MATLAB will be used throughout the semester.

Exams

There will be two in-class quizzes. Both are open-book and open-notes, and we suggest bringing along a calculator that knows about trigonometric functions.

Grading

Your grade will be determined as a weighted average:

ACTIVITIES	PERCENTAGES
Homework	40%
Quizzes	50%
Class participation	10%

Obligatory Policy Statement

We think collaboration is a fine thing, and encourage studying in groups and discussing the topics covered in class. However, for homework problems the work you hand in should be done at least 95% by you alone. If you can think of a system that gives a good evaluation of individual performance and is even better at facilitating learning of this material, please suggest it to us.

Late Homework

We realize that many of our students lead complicated and demanding lives, and will allow you to hand in up to two problem sets late — without penalty — as long as you get permission from one of the faculty or TAs at least a day in advance of the regular due date. The delay is limited, however, and under no circumstances will you receive credit for a problem set after we have made available the solutions.

Calendar

The calendar below provides information on the course’s lecture (L) and recitation (R) sessions.

SES #	TOPICS	KEY DATES
L1	Introduction Overview of subjects to be covered during the term; basic math concepts; notation; vocabulary. Representation of systems	Problem set 1 out
R1	Sinusoids and complex exponentials
L2	Sinusoids Complex exponentials
L3	Spectra Spectrum plots, AM	Problem set 1 due Problem set 2 out
R2	Periodic waveforms, Fourier series
L4	Periodic waveforms Fourier series, frequency modulation (FM)
L5	Basis functions and orthogonality Definition of orthogonality; Walsh functions and other basis sets; discrete Fourier basis matrix	Problem set 2 due Problem set 3 out
R3	Periodicity
L6	Sampling I Sampling theorem, aliasing
R4	Periodicity, spectrum of a periodic functions, basis functions, D-to-C conversion
L7	Sampling II Reconstruction	Problem set 3 due Problem set 4 out
L8	Psychophysics, psychoacoustics, and other physiological signals
R5	C-to-D conversion, folding, aliasing, resampling, unsharp mask, psychoacoustics
R6	Introduction to information theory, Markov processes, entropy coding
L9	Communication theory I Ergodic processes/Markov models; choice, uncertainty and entropy; Shannon’s fundamental theorem for a noiseless channel; entropy coding
L10	Communication theory II Discrete channels with noise; continuous channels; error detection and correction
R7	Noisy channels, repeat rodes, Hamming code error correction
L11	Pre-quiz wrap-up	Problem set 4 due
L12	Quiz 1
End of MAS.510; start of MAS.511
L13	Discrete-time systems I FIR filters. Impulse response. Convolution	Problem set 5 out
L14	Discrete-time systems II Implementations of general LTI systems
R8	Quiz review FIR filters, impulse response, convolution, block diagrams
L15	Frequency response I Response of FIR systems; properties	Problem set 5 due Problem set 6 out
L16	Frequency response II
R9	FIR filters, impulse response, convolution review, frequency response
L17	Z-transform, I Definitions; convolution and the Z-transform; poles and zeros	Problem set 6 due Problem set 7 out
R10	Frequency response, system response, Z-transform
L18	IIR systems Definitions; impulse response and frequency response
L19	Z-transforms II Inverse Z-transform; stability; partial fraction expansion	Problem set 7 due
L20	Spectrum analysis I The DFT; fast algorithms	Problem set 8 out
R11	Inverse Z-transform, zeros, partial fraction expansion, long division, DFT, FFT
L21	Spectrum analysis II The DTFT
L22	Practical filter design
R12	Phase, equivalent system representation, filter design, windows, and cepstrum analysis
L23	Pre-quiz wrap-up and practical communication systems Real-world modulation and demodulation methods; spread-spectrum	Problem set 8 due
L24	Quiz 2