Time-Frequency Distributions-A Review

A review and tutorial of the fundamental ideas and methods of joint time-frequency distributions is presented. The objective of the field is to describe how the spectral content of a signal is changing in time, and to develop the physical and mathematical ideas needed to understand what a time-varying spectrum is. The basic goal is to devise a distribution that represents the energy or intensity of a signal simultaneously in time and frequency. Although the basic notions have been developing steadily over the last 40 years, there have recently been significant advances. This review is presented to be understandable to the nonspecialist with emphasis on the diversity of concepts and motivations that have gone into the formation of the field.