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Summary: Also good for rusted s/w, control system and dsp engineers
Review: As an "over 40s" practising software/communications/dsp engineer coming from a dynamic control system environment I found the book very useful. It gives an easy-to-read description of dsp basics plus some handy tips and current practices. A must for system and specialist engineers in related fields (eg dynamic control systems, software, simulation, data analysis, rf and communications). Contains many detailed numerical solutions of equations. State space models and Z-transform transfer equations could maybe have been used to simplify notation, formulas and examples, but that would made it less readable for readers not so mathematically inclined. No mention of the effects of noise and clock accuracy. All in all, an excellent and user friendly book with a gradual but definite learning curve. Highly recommended to rusted practising engineers and students alike.
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Summary: Excellent intoduction to the topic
Review: This book provides excellent introduction to the field of DSP. All major concepts are explained in simple, effective language. Also, the book features a lot of examples that are worked out _completely_. This will be of especial benefit to people with not-so-strong math background.
The author manages to make the subject not only exciting and easy to understand, but also fun to read, with small humorous snippets.
Highly recommended to anyone starting out with DSP!
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Summary: One of the best technical books I've read
Review: I'll agree with the other glowing reviews here. This is one of the finest technical books I've ever read. It does a really great job of explaining concepts like the FFT so you can really understand them. A great introduction!
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Summary: Wonderful Book for the DSP Beginner
Review: Rick's book has sails the high sea of DSP books standing out as a classic in my opinion. Rick's excellent down-to-earth teaching style is mirrored in this book with his written explanation of DSP theory . On problem many authors have is breezing over explanation with "clearly", "it can be shown", or "It is left to the reader as an exercise." leaving the student with frustration. Rick takes the time take the reader through numerical exercises in great detail leaving the reader with a sense of accomplishment. One topic that is especially handy is that of band limiting (over sampling) DSP theory with good diagrams. I personally used Rick's book to come up to speed in DSP adaptive disk drive read channel VLSI IC testing techniques with great results. The typical DSP topics are covered (sampling, DFT, filters) without graduate level math. The book does require that you understand calculus (integration, summation, and other typical higher level math skills) but at the level of a college senior.
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Summary: great book
Review: this is a really nice book, taht gives a gentle but fairly thorough intro to digital signal processing.
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Summary: wanted to write a review, but it's already written.
Review: I had so many good things to say about this book, I wanted to write my first review, but it looks as though everything has already been said!
Best textbook I've ever read
Can't put it down.
Great subject depth, fun but challenging.
Lyons should write textbooks for other subjects!
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Summary: We need this Richard Lyons guy in other fields!!
Review: The last mathematics course I took was Calulus 3 during my senior year in high school... I graduated in 1991. That was my last exposure to mathematics. My undergrad was in biochemistry (no math) and after that I went to medical school (no math). I started my residency in neurology and I became interested in analyzing EEG brain waves. Unfortunately, most work in this field is done in collaboration with engineers, since us docs have minimal knowledge of mathematics and data analysis. I stumbled upon Lyons's book at Borders and decided to give it a shot. Voila!! No more engineers needed!! I now understand sufficiently the concepts of periodic sampling, the Fourier stuff, filters, signal averaging, etc. all the way down to the simple sums of products that they are. Lyons motivated me so much that I picked up Dietel and Dietel's C++ book and now... a month later... I develop my own software to anaylize these EEG signals.This may not seem as a big deal to the mathematician or engineer... but you have to remember that I'm a neurologist with no math exposure since high school!! If I can learn digital signal processing through Lyons's book... anyone can. Congratulations, Richard G. Lyons... I wish you would write something on time-series predictions.
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Summary: The best DSP book I have ever read
Review: I am a researcher and trying to apply DSP into my project. Coming from a different engineering background, I was frustrated by not able to grasp the basic concept and fundamental mathematic behind the subject of digital signal processing. Through the reviews and amazing recommendation engine from Amazon, I came across this book by Lyons and looked it up from the library. As I was reading the preface and the first chapter, I knew it is the best DSP book I have ever read. Each new terms and mathematical representations are introduced clearly with examples and background/history. You could just basically understand the whole chapter without digging into other textbooks. If you are someone who is just starting to learn more about DSP or an experienced DSP engineer who like to cross-examine your understanding, this is the book for you and I highly recommend it.
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Summary: Worthy of the Nobel and Pulitzer.
Review: Attempting to read several other DSP books, and really never 'getting' it, the quality and explanation of Lyons' "Understanding Digital Signal Processing" stands out in decibels above the others. This book, like others, explains the fundamental theory, but where this book excels and others fail miserably, is how it relates one theory (ie: Laplace to Fourier, Sinc function to a single frequency bin, etc.) to another. The reader is left with an excellent understanding of the 'big picture' of DSP. Additionally, the book has several real-world examples that also reinforce the basic concept and theories. (ie: what if my input frequency does not fall on the exact bin number, what is the 'real' frequency of a fft bin, etc.) If I had this book while taking a DSP class in an undergrad electrical engineering, I would have been out much more drinking with the guys... instead I was inside studying on a Friday night, puzzling over a DSP book written by a professor for other professors. I highly recommend this book for all students and junior engineers trying to grasp DSP concepts. You'll find from this book that the concepts are actually simple, and DSP can be an exciting (instead of frustrating) experience.
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Summary: Bomb Diggity!
Review: Yo, this book is all that and a bag of chips! Very well layed out.
Very well explained. If you want real understanding and insight into the theoretical underpinnings of Digital Signal Processing, buy the book, as it is well worth it. You will NOT find yourself in the realm of rote memorization of force fed formulas, facts and dry unexplained theory; a situation that all too often plagues other technical textbooks. It does help somewhat if you are not queasy about basic Engineering mathematics. I hold this book in a similar regard that I hold the (Second Edition) ANSI C Programming Language by Kernighan and Ritchie.
(High praise indeed). P.S. (Did you see how many five star ratings this book got?)
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