Customer Reviews

The Illustrated Wavelet Transform Handbook

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

 

 

This book provides a comprehensive overview of wavelet transform methodologies and applications. The emphasis is on practical applications which are illustrated with many detailed figures and examples from Science and Engineering. A particular interesting chapter on medical applications is provided. In the introductory chapters, Addison gives a clear account of the theory for both continuous and discrete wavelet transform and associated post-processing techniques. Unlike many of the other books in this area, Addison communicates the concepts with a level of detail, sufficient for the applied engineer and scientist, but without becoming bogged down in a fog of mathematical gymnastics (a feature of many of the books in this area). A welcome addition to the growing number of books on this important signal analysis technique.

This book is by far the best of all the books on wavelet transform I have seen. Not only it explains what wavelet transform is and how it can be used in practice, but also in a very clear and easy to understand manner. Books on wavelet transform tend to be highly mathematical, which can be intimidating for those who just want to use wavelet transform to solve some practical problem. However, this book is very easy to understand and provides lots of examples and end results, namely, formulations to get these results. I give two enthusiastic thumbs up for this excellent book.

Well-written book with good explanations. It reads more like an engineering textbook than a mathematics book. I definitely recommend it to those that wish to gain a solid understanding of wavelet technology/principles.

Very good introduction to wavelet analysis. Not for someone looking for casual reading but for someone who wants to be able to dig in and start doing actual analysis it will get you going.

The book is very useful if you know nothing or very little about wavelets. The maths is kept simple, if you remember the Fourier transform and convolution, then this book will be easy to follow. There are numerous examples and the graphical representations of the transforms really gives you the gist of the whole wavelet business. Practical applications of wavelets of numerous, rather different, fields are shown. The way wavelets are used is demonstrated in a very easy to follow, literally graphic manner.

What you will not find in the book, however, is where to begin to solve *your* problem with wavelets. Which mother wavelet to use? Should you use discrete or continuous transform? Is there a fast method? What are the best ways of eliminating unwanted bits of the wavelet spectra? Just set things to 0? Use some smoothing? For all those questions you will have to go and find other books.

It is like a book on Fourier transform which tells you what it is, shows you how signals and their spectra are related, shows you the applications of FT in filtering, classification etc, with really good illustrative real-life examples so you now clearly understand what FT is and what it can do for you. But that's it. No mention of things like the FFT, the effects of finite precision, the Gibbs oscillation etc.

It is a very great book if you want to understand what wavelets and the wavelet transform are all about and what they can do (as was in my case). However, it is not the book for you if you know all that and want to actually use the transform for a practical problem. In that sense the title is misleading: it is not a handbook, it is a thorough and really easily understandable introduction to wavelets.

As title suggests, I'm a bit surprised that one can write a book by borrowing material from many sources as the author did. Granted, he got permission to reproduce many of the graphs and results from many researchers though I feel this does not add any value. Most of the introductory part (first few chapters) are well-known material. The remaining part (applications of wavelets) are again borrowed from other people.