Daubechies wavelet
The Daubechies wavelets, based on the work of Ingrid Daubechies, are a family of orthogonal wavelets defining a discrete wavelet transform and characterized by a maximal number of vanishing moments for some given support. With each wavelet type of this class, there is a scaling function (called the father wavelet) which generates an orthogonal multiresolution analysis.
In general the Daubechies wavelets are chosen to have the highest number A of vanishing moments, (this does not imply the best smoothness) for given support width 2A - 1. There are two naming schemes in use, DN using the length or number of taps, and dbA referring to the number of vanishing moments. So D4 and db2 are the same wavelet transform.
Among the 2A−1 possible solutions of the algebraic equations for the moment and orthogonality conditions, the one is chosen whose scaling filter has extremal phase. The wavelet transform is also easy to put into practice using the fast wavelet transform. Daubechies wavelets are widely used in solving a broad range of problems, e.g. self-similarity properties of a signal or fractal problems, signal discontinuities, etc.
The Daubechies wavelets are not defined in terms of the resulting scaling and wavelet functions; in fact, they are not possible to write down in closed form. The graphs below are generated using the cascade algorithm, a numeric technique consisting of simply inverse-transforming [1 0 0 0 0 ... ] an appropriate number of times.
Note that the spectra shown here are not the frequency response of the high and low pass filters, but rather the amplitudes of the continuous Fourier transforms of the scaling (blue) and wavelet (red) functions.
Daubechies orthogonal wavelets D2-D20 resp. db1-db10 are commonly used. The index number refers to the number N of coefficients. Each wavelet has a number of zero moments or vanishing moments equal to half the number of coefficients. For example, D2 (the Haar wavelet) has one vanishing moment, D4 has two, etc. A vanishing moment limits the wavelets ability to represent polynomial behaviour or information in a signal. For example, D2, with one moment, easily encodes polynomials of one coefficient, or constant signal components. D4 encodes polynomials with two coefficients, i.e. constant and linear signal components; and D6 encodes 3-polynomials, i.e. constant, linear and quadratic signal components. This ability to encode signals is nonetheless subject to the phenomenon of scale leakage, and the lack of shift-invariance, which raise from the discrete shifting operation (below) during application of the transform. Sub-sequences which represent linear, quadratic (for example) signal components are treated differently by the transform depending on whether the points align with even- or odd-numbered locations in the sequence. The lack of the important property of shift-invariance, has led to the development of several different versions of a shift-invariant (discrete) wavelet transform.
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