Digital Signal Processing Hardware & Applications

DSP also known as Digital signal processing is something related with the representation of signals by a sequence of numbers or symbols and the processing of these signals. Digital signal and analog signal processing are subfields of signal processing. DSP includes things such as audio and speech signal processing, sonar and radar signal processing, sensor array processing, spectral estimation, statistical signal processing, digital image processing, signal processing for communications, control of systems, biomedical signal processing, seismic data processing, etc.

The ultimate aim of DSP is usually to measure, filter and/or compress continuous real-world analog signals. The first process is usually to convert the signal from an analog to a digital form, by sampling it using an analog-to-digital converter (ADC), which turns the analog signal into a stream of numbers. However the output signal is another analog output signal, which requires a digital-to-analog converter (DAC). Even though such process is more complex than analog processing and has a discrete value range, the application of computational power to digital signal processing allows for many advantages over analog processing in many applications, such as error detection and correction in transmission as well as data compression.

Applications

Biomedical Applications: DSP is mainly used in the field of biomedicine. In this different signals that are generated by the different organs in the human body are measured in order to find information regarding the health of the same. Example, in the process of electrocardiograms, the electric signals generated by the heart is measured. This process is used to monitor the activity of the brain by electroencephalograms.

Automatic Control: Many gadgets are now available, that can perform their tasks automatically. These devices include various components that can take inputs depending on the surrounding conditions. These are taken to the control unit of the device where they are processed and the necessary action is taken. Example let us consider a device like the thermostat which increases its resistance in proportion to temperature. This system can stem the current in a machine whenever the temperature rises.