Wavelets in Chemistry

Book excerpt: Wavelets seem to be the most efficient tool in signal denoising and compression. They can be used in an unlimited number of applications in all fields of chemistry where the instrumental signals are the source of information about the studied chemical systems or phenomena, and in all cases where these signals have to be archived. The quality of the instrumental signals determines the quality of answer to the basic analytical questions: how many components are in the studied systems, what are these components like and what are their concentrations? Efficient compression of the signal sets can drastically speed up further processing such as data visualization, modelling (calibration and pattern recognition) and library search. Exploration of the possible applications of wavelets in analytical chemistry has just started and this book will significantly speed up the process. The first part, concentrating on theoretical aspects, is written in a tutorial-like manner, with simple numerical examples. For the reader's convenience, all basic terms are explained in detail and all unique properties of wavelets are pinpointed and compared with the other types of basis function. The second part presents applications of wavelets from many branches of chemistry which will stimulate chemists to further exploration of this exciting subject.