In this blog post, we will take a look at how digital signal processing technology is transforming our daily lives and various industries, and how it will impact future technologies.
Nowadays, you can do everything with your smartphone wherever you go. You can send and receive messages with friends nonstop, listen to music with earphones, and browse the internet for news or trending videos. All of these things that we take for granted were unimaginable just 20 years ago. In the past, we had to use a typewriter to type, a CD player to listen to music, and a television to watch videos. Now, we can do all of these things with a small device in our hands, and sometimes even do several things at the same time. This is the power of digital signal processing technology.
Digital signal processing refers to the conversion of signals from nature into electrical signals. The natural scenery we see while walking in the park and the sounds we hear in a cafe are all a type of signal. Since these signals cannot be used directly by machines, they are converted into electrical signals consisting of current and voltage that can be easily processed and handled by machines through digital signal processing. It is also thanks to this digital signal processing technology that Siri on the iPhone and Bixby on the Samsung Galaxy can understand human speech and perform tasks.
Why is digital signal processing technology necessary? To answer this question, we must first understand the concepts of analog and digital signals. Analog signals are signals that have a continuous distribution, such as light and sound. Since the signals are continuous and form a single large entity, it is difficult for users to arbitrarily process the signals in between. Since the signals are used as they are without manipulation, the system used to process the signals varies depending on the type of signal. This limits the scope of application and makes system design more complex. In contrast, digital signals are signals with a discrete distribution consisting of 0s and 1s. Since the signals are discrete, users can process the signals in various ways. Since all digital signals are integrated and processed as an array of 0s and 1s, signals can be managed with a single system regardless of the type of signal, such as data, video, or voice. However, most of the signals we encounter in real life are analog signals. This is why we need digital signal processing technology that can convert analog signals into digital signals and process them for our purposes.
Digital signal processing consists of five steps: pre-processing filtering, analog-to-digital conversion (A/D conversion), digital signal processing, D/A conversion, and post-processing filtering. Let’s take a look at a simple example. You are talking to a friend on your cell phone. The voice coming out of your mouth is an analog signal with a continuous distribution. The pre-processing filter limits the range of the frequency of the analog signal entering the input to prevent noise from entering the phone except for human voices as much as possible. A/D conversion is the process of converting the signal into a digital signal so that it can be processed inside the phone. Your voice is now inside the phone as a combination of numerous zeros and ones. In the digital signal processing stage, the noise remaining in the converted signal is removed, and in some cases, the volume is increased or the sound quality is improved. The processed signal is converted back to a voice signal, an analog signal that can be understood by the user on the other end of the phone, through D/A conversion. It is further refined to a cleaner signal through post-processing filtering and then delivered to the other party.
These digital signal processing systems do not simply convert voice or video. Digital signal processing is the technology that underlies all of today’s information and communication systems, and it has become an essential element in our daily lives. For example, the GPS system that we use every day uses digital signal processing to calculate location information by digitally converting the received satellite signals. In the medical field, imaging equipment such as MRI and CT scans also generate high-resolution images through digital signal processing, enabling accurate diagnosis.
The development of digital signal processing technology has brought about major changes in various fields. In particular, advanced technologies such as autonomous vehicles and smart homes can analyze data in real time and make decisions based on the situation through digital signal processing. This is playing an important role in improving our quality of life, going beyond simply technological advancement. As such, digital signal processing technology is continuously evolving in various fields such as information and communication, medical care, and transportation, and will continue to have a significant impact on our daily lives.
Digital signal processing systems have provided us with great convenience in processing and integrating signals by freely converting between analog and digital signals. However, digital signal processing also has some disadvantages. The process of converting analog signals into digital signals can cause some information to be lost or distort the original signal. The disadvantages of digital signal processing include the phenomenon of hearing a voice cut off during a phone call and the phenomenon of the sound quality being perceived as worse. However, digital signal processing technology is widely used in various fields, including information and communication, because there are many advantages to be gained compared to these disadvantages. Moreover, the recently developed signal processing technology has a performance level similar to that of the original analog signal, which is difficult to distinguish with the human sensory organs.
In the future, digital signal processing technology will be a powerful weapon that can make the world of natural language understanding, ubiquitous computing, and the Internet of Things a reality. This technology will also play a key role in advancing network infrastructure and building more efficient and faster information processing systems around the world. The potential of this technology to turn human imagination into reality is endless, and we will continue to discover new possibilities as it develops.
