Generalized instantaneous parameters and window matching in the time-frequency plane

In this paper, the concept of instantaneous parameters, which has previously been associated exclusively with 1-D measures like the instantaneous frequency and the group delay, are extended to the 2-D time-frequency plane. Such generalized instantaneous parameters are associated with the shorttime Fourier transform. They may also be interpreted as local moments of certain time-frequency distributions. It is shown that these measures enable local signal behavior to be characterized in the time-frequency plane for nonstationary deterministic signals. The usefulness of the generalized instantaneous parameters is demonstrated in their application to optimal selection of windows for spectrograms. This is achieved through window matching in the time-frequency plane. An algorithm is provided that illustrates the performance of this window matching. Results based on simulated and real data are presented.