Customer Reviews

Digital Filters (Dover Civil and Mechanical Engineering)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book introduces major concepts of digital filters. The author starts with the basics (why should we care about digital filters) and ends up with quite complicated things such as recursive filters. This is an excellent book on introductory/intermediate level. In a short, concise form it explains everything what an average engineer/scientist/student who is not involved into professional development of digital filters needs to know about them. What I liked most about this book is that the presentation of the material is very self-consistent. R.W.Hamming starts with the simplest things and proceeds to the next section only when everything what the reader will need in the following is explained. I think, its an excellent buy, especially for this price.

Hamming famously said, "The purpose of computing is insight, not numbers." This book follows that philosophy: it's a clear, step-by-step development of simple FIR filters, which will make that part of the digital filtering world accessible to almost anyone. It's at about a third-year undergraduate level, very suitable for self-teaching, and contains lots of lore that will help keep you out of trouble.

My only complaint is that it doesn't even dip a toe into recursive filters or optimal FIR filters, so that it is far from a complete treatment. If you're new to digital filtering, especially if you don't have an electrical engineering background, this is your book.

Dr. Hamming explains about aliasing just by using cos and sin
relation, without using any transform domain concept which is
a typical explanation method in most books.
His explanation about frequency resolution also fascinates me.

This is a great book for some who is more into the theory and not applications in digital filters. The examples are simplistic. If you are looking for a book in practical applications, this is not the book for you.

Some years ago(!) Hamming held a seminar/workshop which I attended. This book was the handout. As I remember, he said that this book was a result of teaching students at the Naval Post Graduate School where he found that the students were smart/bright/quick, but just rusty on their math. As a result, the book is not intended for the same audience as Oppenheim and Schaffer.

One item that appears to be unique is Hamming's short piece on differentiating filters (the noise increases with frequency when the signal is differentiated, and practical application typically is not interested in the higher frequencies).

This is not a cookbook for implementing digital filters. It is a good book for developing insight into the math and development of the basic dsp filter. I still pull it out to look up something, from time-to-time.

This text by Hamming does a good job of covering what it does, but I expect that the modern student of DSP will be disappointed if he/she comes to this text for a main course in filter design. As much as Mr. Hamming says he will not develop the mathematics and theory separate of the application, to me this is exactly what the book does and what would confuse most readers. He develops the mathematics - although very well - in the first five chapters. Then he goes on to talk about filter design. In the filter design section he does talk about both FIR and IIR filter design, although he spends only two chapters on IIR filters. Also what is missing from this book is what makes digital filter design "work" - a discussion of linear time invariance, the various theorems regarding the discrete Fourier transform, and exactly WHAT is a Z transform in regard to a digital system. Also missing are block diagrams of filter designs, which are a necessary part of learning for most electrical engineering students. Finally, although there are student exercises throughout the book, there are no answers to any of them given, making the reader wonder if he/she is properly grasping the material.
Thus my advice would be to use either the Oppenheim or Proakis text to learn DSP. However, in conjunction with either of those books, this book covers and emphasizes some mathematical aspects of digital filter design that are sometimes missed or not covered in depth in those books.

Mathematically interesting, but watch out for misprints.

If you want to actually implement something look elsewhere.

I am glad to see that this classic book has been reprinted by Dover