6 Getting Started with ASPT

ASPT has been designed to have a simple user interface and a single calling convention for all algorithms, while giving the user maximum control on the parameters of each algorithm. This homogeneous design makes ASPT very easy to use and makes new users immediately comfortable with the toolbox. In fact, the homogeneous calling procedure means that if you know how to use one algorithm you will have no hard time using any of the others. Each adaptive algorithm supported by ASPT has an initialization function with its name starting with the init_ prefix and a main function with name starting with the aspt prefix. For instance, the Least Mean Squares (LMS) algorithm has its initialization function named init_lms() and its main function named asptlms(). The initialization function is usually called only once to create and initialize the variables required for its algorithm, while the main function is usually called in a processing loop to performs the actual work of calculating the adaptive filter output and updating the filter coefficients. You can find this calling procedure repeated over and over again in all scripts located in the apps and test directories. Probably the fastest way to learn how to use the Adaptive Signal Processing Toolbox is to examine the scripts in the apps and test directories.. Those scripts give example applications covering all adaptive algorithms included in the current release of ASPT. The scripts in the test directory are self contained short applications that are also listed in this documentation. Each of those scripts creates and initializes an adaptive filter, creates the input and desired signals, calls the adaptive algorithm to update the filter coefficients in a loop, and finally generates a plot demonstrating the functionality of the application. The scripts in the apps directory are more involved applications with real life data and usually take more time to execute. The input and output data for those applications are usually read from audio files located in the wavin directory and generate output audio files which will be stored in the wavout directory. Those applications use the initialization functions and adaptive algorithms in the same way the simple test applications do. Examining a few of those scripts will immediately make you comfortable with the toolbox. You are also encouraged to copy from those scripts and paste into your own applications. Once you have examined a few applications, you are ready to build your own adaptive applications using the ASPT routines. You can obtain more information on a specific algorithm by examining its reference page in this document or by typing
>> help function_name
at the Matlab command line prompt. To see a list of all functions and applications included in your ASPT distribution, use the following command
>> help aspt