The fast Fourier transform (FFT),
one of the most important algorithms of the 20th century, revolutionized signal
processing. The algorithm allowed computers to quickly perform Fourier
transforms (fundamental operations that separate signals into their individual
frequencies) leading to developments in audio and video engineering and digital
data compression. But ever since its development in the 1960s, computer
scientists have been searching for an algorithm to better it.
Last year MIT researchers did
just that, unveiling an algorithm that in some circumstances can perform
Fourier transforms hundreds of times more quickly than the FFT. Recently, researchers
within the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), have
gone a step further, significantly reducing the number of samples that must be
taken from a given signal in order to perform a Fourier transform operation.
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