Implementing a filter in Matlab

Question

I am trying to implement the following filter on a discrete signal x:

I'm supposed to write a MATLAB function that takes a length-M (> N) vector x and a scalar N as input. The output should be a length-M vector y.

I should then test the filter with M = 50, x[n]=cos(n*pi/5)+dirac[n-30]-dirac[n-35] and N = 4, 8, 12.

Here is my try, which returns Inf with the given input and N:

function y = filt( x, N )
% filter function
    if(~isvector(x))
        error('Input must be a vector')
    end
    y = zeros(1,length(x));
    temp = zeros(1,length(x));
    n=1;
    for v = x(:)
        temp(n) = v(n);
        if(n <= N-1)
            y(n) = max(x);
            n = n+1;
        elseif(n >= N-1)
            y(n) = max(temp);
        end
    end
end

I also tried using the built-in filter function but I can't get it to work.

Code for using the filter:

p = zeros(1,50);
for i=0:50
    p(i+1)= cos(i*pi/5)+dirac(i-30)-dirac(i-35)
end
y = filt(p,4)

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

That's because dirac(0) gives you Inf. This will happen in two places in your signal, where n=30 and n=35. I'm assuming you want the unit impulse instead. As such, create a signal where at n = 31 and n = 36, the output is 1, then add this with your cosine signal. This is because MATLAB starts indexing at 1 and not 0, and so dirac[0] would mean that the first point of your signal is non-zero, so translating this over by 30: dirac[n-30] would mean that the 31st point is non-zero. Similar case for dirac[n-35], so the 36th point is non-zero:

p = zeros(1,50);
p(31) = 1; p(36) = 1;
p = p + cos((0:49)*pi/5);
y = filt(p,4);

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I also have some reservations with your code. It doesn't do what you think it's doing. Specifically, I'm looking at this section:

n=1;
for v = x(:)
    temp(n) = v(n);
    if(n <= N-1)
        y(n) = max(x);
        n = n+1;
    elseif(n >= N-1)
        y(n) = max(temp);
    end
end

Doing v = x(:) would produce a column vector, and using a loop with a column vector will have unintentional results. Specifically, this loop will only execute once, with v being the entire signal. You also aren't checking the conditions properly for each window. You are doing max(x), which applies the maximum to the entire signal, and not the window.

---

If I can suggest a rewrite, this is what you should be doing instead:

function y = filt( x, N )
% filter function
    if(~isvector(x))
        error('Input must be a vector')
    end
    y = zeros(1,length(x));

    %///// CHANGE
    for n = 1 : numel(x)
        if (n <= N)
            y(n) = max(x(1:n));
        else
            y(n) = max(x(n:-1:n-N+1));
        end    
    end
end

---

Take note that the if statement is n <= N. This is because in MATLAB, we start indexing at 1, but the notation in your equation starts indexing at 0. Therefore, instead of checking for n <= N-1, it must now be n <= N.