Discrete Fourier Transform by Hand ✍️
Calculating AI by Hand: 19 of 28
In signal processing, the Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) is no doubt the most important method. But the math involved is extremely complex, literally, involving a summation over a complex number term e^(-iwt), where e is the Euler number, i is the imaginary unit, w is the angular frequency, and t is time.
I developed this exercise to demonstrate that underneath such complexity, DFT is just a series of matrix multiplications you can calculate by hand. ✍️ Once you see that, it should not surprise you that a deep neural network, which is also a series of matrix multiplications, with activation functions in-between, can learn to perform DFT to process and analyze signals so effectively.
