What is meant by Fourier analysis?
Fourier analysis is a mathematical method used to decompose functions or signals into their frequency components. It is based on the premise that any periodic function can be represented as a sum of sine and cosine functions. This technique is widely used in signal processing, image processing, acoustics, and other technical fields to gain insights into the frequency content of a signal.
Typical software functions in the area of "Fourier analysis":
- Frequency Analysis: Determination of the frequency components of a signal and their amplitudes.
- Spectral Analysis: Visualization of the frequency spectrum of a signal, often presented as a spectrogram.
- Filtering: Application of digital filters to emphasize or suppress specific frequency ranges.
- Transformation: Performing the Fourier transform (e.g., Fast Fourier Transform, FFT) to convert time-domain signals into the frequency domain.
- Signal Reconstruction: Capability to reconstruct the original signal from its frequency components.
- Power Spectral Density: Calculation and representation of a signal's power density as a function of frequency.
- Phase Analysis: Analysis of phase shifts between different frequency components of a signal.