Module overview
Signals such as audio, music, sonar, images and video carry information about physical quantities that vary over time and space. They can describe anything from acoustic vibrations to radio waves, which makes them fundamental across the whole of engineering. To record, process, transmit and make sense of this information, engineers rely on a powerful set of computational and mathematical tools, and this module introduces them.
You will study the principles used to analyse signals and to understand how they are affected by systems, building up the fundamental concepts of frequency analysis, spectral analysis and digital systems theory. In frequency analysis, a signal is decomposed into its component frequencies. Because many systems affect each frequency independently, this lets you study a system through its effect on different frequencies: a loudspeaker, for instance, can be designed so that it does not unduly boost or attenuate particular frequencies and colour the sound. Spectral analysis also reveals frequency content, but accounts for the significant random variation most real signals show, allowing you to study physical systems and to relate different signals, such as the electrical signal driving a speaker and the acoustic signal reaching your ears. Because we now analyse and process signals on digital computers, you will also study how analogue signals are converted to digital form, when this can be done faithfully, and what errors arise if the requirements are not met, leading naturally to the analysis of digital systems using tools related to those for continuous systems.
By the end of the module, you will be able to analyse signals in both the time and frequency domains, characterise how systems act on them, and understand the principles and pitfalls of working with signals digitally. These are core skills across acoustics, audio, communications and control, and they provide the essential foundation for the more advanced signal and image processing modules later in the programme and for professional engineering practice.