H6T7 MSc Digital Music Processing (12 months)

The purpose of this module is to introduce the general topic of Digital Signal Processing and bring students up to a common level. Students are first introduced to the behaviour of simple filters as LTI systems, represented by difference equations. Frequency response of these systems leads into the study of Discrete Fourier Transform and simple Spectral Analysis. There follow sections on designing the coefficients of LTI systems so they can be programmed to perform as filters to prescribed magnitude specifications.

Time-frequency transforms are an important tool in the analysis and processing of signals and images. These transforms include the Fourier transform, spectrogram, discrete cosine transform, wavelet transform, and Wigner-Ville distribution. This course will introduce these various transforms and explore how they are suitable for different signal and image processing applications.

Content under revision.

The course will cover the principles of digital radio and television broadcasting, including audio and video compression, standards, modulation and conditional access techniques. The aim of this course is to impart an understanding of the technology used in digital radio and television broadcasting and the probable future developments in digital broadcasting.

Technology has the potential to transform human communication. It can weaken spatial and temporal constraints on who can communicate. It creates opportunities for new communities and patterns of interaction. It can also provide the resources to enable radically new kinds of human-human interaction. Our intuitions about what makes communication effective are a poor guide. Some technologies, such as videophones, that are specifically designed to enhance communication can sometimes make it worse. Currently, there is no accepted explanation of how technologies alter, and are altered by, the patterns and processes of human communication. Such an explanation is necessary for effective design of new technologies. This research led course explores these issues by introducing the social science of human communication and applying it to the analysis of technologies that support human interaction (video phones, whiteboards, facebook, twitter). We will consider small-scale face-to-face conversations and mass interaction in classrooms and live performances. In each case we will explore how people exploit the resources available to them, such as speech, gesture, touch and body orientation to enable effective, engaging interactions.

This course covers methods for machine learning from signals and data, including statistical pattern recognition methods, neural networks, and clustering.

This course aims to introduce students to the application of Digital Signal Processing to music and speech.The application-oriented nature of the syllabus will reinforce the theory learned in other courses through lectures and laboratories.

To study the principles of satellite systems and their application to Satellite Communications, Remote Sensing and Global Positioning Systems. The course will treat the topics of orbits, launching, payloads, communication link budgets, modulation schemes, multiplexing methods, the transponder and frequency planning, satellite antennas, remote sensing techniques, global positioning using multiple satellites.

This course introduces students to common methods for the analysis and synthesis of digital audio. It presents in-depth studies of general approaches to the low-level analysis of audio signals, and follows these with specialised methods for the semantic analysis of music signals, including the extraction of information related to the rhythm, melody, harmony and instrumentation of recorded music. This is followed by an examination of the most important methods of sound synthesis, including wavetable, sampling, additive, subtractive, modulation, and physical modelling synthesis.

Over the last few years Multimedia Systems have grown to a massive industry involving several technologies including image, video and audio processing, information retrieval, integration generation and manipulation of different media as well as media synthesis. This course will provide an understanding of these media, their creation, integration and processing and give a good overview about how state-of-the art multimedia systems are built and work. The course also gives a quick view on the most important standards for compression and coding of multimedia, as well as content description interfaces. The course begins by giving an overview of cutting-edge multimedia applications. This is followed by a detailed treatment of fundamental tasks involved in creating and processing multimedia information . Special underlying design requirements and coding aspects are then covered. In the following lectures some important areas of multimedia systems in the context of intellectual property protection and management are covered. Each student is required to complete a coursework consisting of the implementation of a specific multimedia application. To conduct this work, one supervised laboratory hour will be provided every week. The project will conclude with a demonstration of the implemented application.

The aim is to give students the opportunity to apply the techniques and technologies which they have learned to a significant advanced project. Projects will either be significantly development based, or else have a research focus. All projects will be expected either to investigate or to make use of techniques that are at the leading edge. The primary evaluation mechanism will be a project report which is to be submitted upon completion of the allotted project period. This project report will be evaluated using the standard criteria for scholarly work. In addition to a written report, projects will also include a viva component, where students will be required to explain and defend their project. There will also be a formal project demonstration.