Introduction

After nearly 14 years I could not have come up with a better introduction than the one I wrote in my previous book on zero-crossings and nonuniform sampling [1]:

Man’s understanding of nature is often through nonuniform observations in space or time. In space, one normally observes the important features of an object (such as edges); the less important features are interpolated…History is a collection of important events that are nonuniformly spaced in time. Historians infer between events (interpolation) and politicians, similar to stock market analysts, forecast the future from past and present events (extrapolation). This fact can be generalized to other realms of human endeavor. Indeed most readers of this book may read the introduction, the conclusion, and possibly a few sections of a few chapters of this book and then try to figure out the rest by interpolation!

Coming more down to earth, I wanted to write another book which is more practical with more relevant theories as opposed to [1] which was more comprehensive with cursory treatment of each subject. I realized the theory and application in the field of nonuniform sampling is so vast that it is impossible to master diversified topics such as seismology, magnetic resonance imaging, array signal processing, filter design, modulation and coding, sampled data control, and multimedia applications [31]; see the accompanying CD-ROM file: Chapterl\Sampta95.txt. Hence I had to ask for help from the experts.