Customer Reviews

Wavelets: Theory, Algorithms, and Applications

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This book consists of some well-written papers by some leading research scientists in the field of wavelets. It can be thought of as a very high quality proceedings book. The title is a bit misleading. The book is mostly about theory and algorithms. A high level of mathematical background is required to read the book. Some books which can be considered competitors to this one are the 2 older and even more outdated books edited by: (1) Combes et al. and (2) Ruskai et al. AND a book by Benedetto and Frazier, which was so successful that it was translated into Japanese (alhtough some of the weaker papers were omitted in the Japanese version). This Chui book and the Benedetto-Frazier book contain extensive references, though many are now out-of-date. The applications section is also bit out-of-date. Mathematics can live on as is, though tastes and fashions vary over time.

Chui is a very successful organizer of conferences and has written and edited many books, either alone or with others. This book is well put together and suffers from fewer faults as Chui's earlier book (Vol 2. of this series).

The theoretical papers are more interesting and cover topics not found in Daubechies' famous book: Ten Lectures on Wavelets. Some of the applications address genuine laboratory problems. Image and acoustical digital signal processing are barely touched upon, but it doesn't matter since the publication of Mallat's A Wavelet Tour of Signal Processing obviates the need. This book does not contain problems to be assigned for homework, but it can still be used in a course -- perhaps a graduate seminar or a special topics course. Be warned that the book is a bit pricey to use as a supplementary text in a course.