Why Transforms? 2.0 2003/01/13 2003/01/13 Phil Schniter schniter@ee.eng.ohio-state.edu Charlet Reedstrom charlet@rice.edu Phil Schniter schniter@ee.eng.ohio-state.edu transforms In the field of signal processing we frequently encounter the use of transforms. Transforms are named such because they take a signal and transform it into another signal, hopefully one which is easier to process or analyze than the original. Essentially, transforms are used to manipulate signals such that their most important characteristics are made plainly evident. To isolate a signal's important characteristics, however, one must employ a transform that is well matched to that signal. For example, the Fourier transform, while well matched to certain classes of signal, does not efficiently extract information about signals in other classes. This latter fact motivates our development of the wavelet transform.