Localisation of the complex spectrum : The S transform

TLDR: The S transform as discussed by the authors is an extension to the ideas of the Gabor transform and the Wavelet transform, based on a moving and scalable localising Gaussian window and is shown here to have characteristics that are superior to either of the transforms.

Abstract: The S transform, an extension to the ideas of the Gabor transform and the Wavelet transform, is based on a moving and scalable localising Gaussian window and is shown here to have characteristics that are superior to either of the transforms. The S transform is fully convertible both forward and inverse from the time domain to the 2-D frequency translation (time) domain and to the familiar Fourier frequency domain. Parallel to the translation (time) axis, the S transform collapses as the Fourier transform. The amplitude frequency-time spectrum and the phase frequency-time spectrum are both useful in defining local spectral characteristics. The superior properties of the S transform are due to the fact that the modulating sinusoids are fixed with respect to the time axis while the localising scalable Gaussian window dilates and translates. As a result, the phase spectrum is absolute in the sense that it is always referred to the origin of the time axis, the fixed reference point. The real and imaginary spectrum can be localised independently with a resolution in time corresponding to the period of the basis functions in question. Changes in the absolute phase ofa constituent frequency can be followed along the time axis and useful information can be extracted. An analysis of a sum of two oppositely progressing chirp signals provides a spectacular example of the power of the S transform. Other examples of the applications of the Stransform to synthetic as well as real data are provided.