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Wavelength denoising with PyWavelets in Deepnote

By Filip Žitný

Updated on March 6, 2024

Wavelet denoising is a powerful technique used to clean noisy signals, and PyWavelets offers an efficient implementation of the discrete wavelet transform (DWT). In this article, we will explore the process of wavelet denoising using PyWavelets, assuming a fundamental understanding of wavelet transforms.

The problem

We start with a signal distorted by white noise. Our goal is to recover the original signal. Consider the following example where we generate a Doppler signal and add noise to it:

%matplotlib inline
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import pywt

def doppler(freqs, dt, amp_inc=10, t0=0, f0=np.pi*2):
    t = np.arange(len(freqs)) * dt + t0
    amp = np.linspace(1, np.sqrt(amp_inc), len(freqs))**2
    sig = amp * np.sin(freqs * f0 * t)
    return t, sig

def noisify(sig, noise_amp=1):
    return sig + (np.random.random(len(sig))-0.5)*2*noise_amp

t_dop, sig_dop = doppler(np.arange(10, 20, 0.01)[::-1], 0.002)
sig_dop_n2 = noisify(sig_dop, noise_amp=2)

plt.figure(figsize=(16, 4))
plt.subplot(121)
plt.plot(t_dop, sig_dop)
plt.title("Original Signal")
plt.subplot(122)
plt.plot(t_dop, sig_dop_n2)
plt.title("Noisy Signal")
plt.show()

1.png

Our objective is to transform the noisy signal back to its original form.

Fourier transform approach

One way to approach this is by using Fourier Transform denoising, which filters out frequencies outside the known range of the original signal:

def fourier_denoising(sig, min_freq, max_freq, dt=1.0):
    trans = np.fft.fft(sig)
    freqs = np.fft.fftfreq(len(sig), d=dt)
    trans[np.where(np.logical_or(np.abs(freqs) < min_freq, np.abs(freqs) > max_freq))] = 0
    res = np.fft.ifft(trans)
    return res.real

fsig_dop = np.abs(np.fft.fft(sig_dop))
fsig_dop_n2 = np.abs(np.fft.fft(sig_dop_n2))
freqs_dop = np.fft.fftfreq(len(sig_dop), d=0.002)
idx = np.where(np.abs(freqs_dop) < 50)

plt.plot(freqs_dop[idx], fsig_dop[idx], label="FFT(signal)")
plt.plot(freqs_dop[idx], fsig_dop_n2[idx], label="FFT(signal + noise)")
plt.legend(loc="best")
plt.show()

fsig_dop_fden = fourier_denoising(sig_dop_n2, 0, 20, dt=0.002)
plt.plot(t_dop, sig_dop, lw=6, alpha=0.3, label="Original Signal")
plt.plot(t_dop, fsig_dop_fden, "r-", label="Denoising Result")
plt.legend(loc="best")
plt.show()

2.png

3.png

This approach assumes knowledge of the signal's frequency range, but it may not address noise within that range.

Introduction to PyWavelets

PyWavelets provides a simple way to perform the discrete wavelet transform (DWT). Let's start by exploring available wavelet families and individual wavelets:

print(pywt.families())
print(pywt.wavelist("sym"))

We will use the Haar and Symlet wavelets for our demonstration:

haar = pywt.Wavelet("haar")
print("Haar wavelet highpass filter:", haar.filter_bank[0])
print("Haar wavelet lowpass filter:", haar.filter_bank[1])
print(haar)

sym12 = pywt.Wavelet("sym12")
phi_s12, psi_s12, x_s12 = sym12.wavefun(8)
plt.figure(figsize=(16, 4))
plt.subplot(121)
plt.title("$\\\\phi$")
plt.plot(x_s12, phi_s12)
plt.subplot(122)
plt.title("$\\\\psi$")
plt.plot(x_s12, psi_s12)
plt.show()

4.png

Performing DWT with PyWavelets

We decompose the noisy signal using the DWT and examine the approximation and detail coefficients:

cA, cD = pywt.dwt(sig_dop_n2, "sym12", mode="zero")
plt.plot(cA, label="Approximation Coefficients")
plt.plot(cD, label="Detail Coefficients")
plt.legend(loc="best")
plt.show()
5.png

To analyze the full decomposition:

coeffs = pywt.wavedec(sig_dop, "sym12")
coeffs_n = pywt.wavedec(sig_dop_n2, "sym12")
approx, details = coeffs[0], coeffs[1:]
approx_n, details_n = coeffs_n[0], coeffs_n[1:]

def plot_dwt(details, approx, xlim=(-300, 300), **line_kwargs):
    for i in range(len(details)):
        plt.subplot(len(details) + 1, 1, i + 1)
        d = details[len(details) - 1 - i]
        half = len(d) // 2
        xvals = np.arange(-half, -half + len(d)) * 2**i
        plt.plot(xvals, d, **line_kwargs)
        plt.xlim(xlim)
        plt.title("detail[{}]".format(i))
    plt.subplot(len(details) + 1, 1, len(details) + 1)
    plt.title("approx")
    plt.plot(xvals, approx, **line_kwargs)
    plt.xlim(xlim)

plt.figure(figsize=(15, 24))
plot_dwt(details, approx)
plot_dwt(details_n, approx_n, color="red", alpha=0.5)
plt.show()

6.png

Wavelet denoising with NeighBlock

We use the NeighBlock method for denoising by leveraging the correlation between neighboring coefficients:

def neigh_block(details, n, sigma):
    res = []
    L0 = int(np.log2(n) // 2)
    L1 = max(1, L0 // 2)
    L = L0 + 2 * L1

    def nb_beta(sigma, L, detail):
        S2 = np.sum(detail ** 2)
        lmbd = 4.50524  # solution of lmbd - log(lmbd) = 3
        beta = (1 - lmbd * L * sigma**2 / S2)
        return max(0, beta)

    for d in details:
        d2 = d.copy()
        for start_b in range(0, len(d2), L0):
            end_b = min(len(d2), start_b + L0)
            start_B = start_b - L1
            end_B = start_B + L
            if start_B < 0:
                end_B -= start_B
                start_B = 0
            elif end_B > len(d2):
                start_B -= end_B - len(d2)
                end_B = len(d2)
            assert end_B - start_B == L
            d2[start_b:end_b] *= nb_beta(sigma, L, d2[start_B:end_B])
        res.append(d2)
    return res

details_nb = neigh_block(details_n, len(sig_dop), 0.8)
plt.figure(figsize=(15, 24))
plot_dwt(details, approx)
plot_dwt(details_n, approx_n, color="red", alpha=0.5)
plot_dwt(details_nb, approx_n, color="green", alpha=0.5, lw=2)
plt.show()
7.png

Finally, reconstruct the signal:

sig_dop_dn = pywt.waverec([approx_n] + details_nb, "sym12")
plt.figure(figsize=(15, 4))
plt.title("Denoised Signal vs Original Signal")
plt.plot(sig_dop, label="Original Signal")
plt.plot(sig_dop_dn, label="Denoised Signal")
plt.legend()
plt.show()
8.png

Conclusion

Wavelet denoising using PyWavelets effectively removes noise while preserving signal features, making it a robust technique for signal processing. If you encounter any issues, please get in touch with our support. Happy coding in Deepnote!

Filip Žitný

Data Scientist

Follow Filip on Twitter, LinkedIn and GitHub

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