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DFT as a change of basis

DFT can be thought as a simple change of basis. In the time domain, every sample of a signal represents its amplitude at that very instant.

\[ y\left

\[n\\right\]

= \sin{\left( \frac{2\pi k }{N} n\right)} \]

Nevertheless, when applying a transformation such as the DFT, every sample means something different.

The DFT is computed as the scalar product between the signal and a orthogonal base. This base is as follows:

\[ \{\boldsymbol{w}^{(k)}\}_{\{k=0,1,…,N-1\}} \]

\[ w_n = e^{j \frac{2\pi}{N}nk}\]

If some of these base vectors are plotted with the imaginary part in the Y axe and the real part in the X axe:

DFT calculation

The DFT of a signal can be computed then, applying a change of basis over the desired signal.

\[ X\left

\[k\\right\]

= \sum_{n=0}^{N-1} x\left

\[n\\right\]

e^{-j\frac{2\pi}{N}nk}, \text{      } k = 0,1,…,N-1 \]

DFT of a \(\delta\left\[n\\right\]\)

\[ x\left

\[n\\right\]

= \delta

\[n\]

= \left\{\begin{matrix} 1 & n = 0\\ 0 & otherwise \end{matrix}\right. \] \[X\left

\[k\\right\]

= \sum_{n=0}^{N-1}{\delta\left

\[n\\right\]

e^{-j\frac{2\pi}{N}nk}}\]

\[ X\left

\[k\\right\]

=  1 \cdot e^{-j\frac{2\pi}{N}\cdot 0 \cdot k} = 1 \]

DFT of a cosine

\[ x\left

\[n\\right\]

= 4 \cos{\left(\frac{2\pi}{4}n\right)} =  4 \cos{\left(\frac{2\pi 4}{16}n\right)} = \frac{4}{2} \left

\[e^{ \\frac{2\\pi}{16} 4n} + e^{-j \\frac{2\\pi}{16} 4n} \\right\]

\]

\[To be finished\]