The Algorithm and Error Analysis of Fractional Fourier Transform

Fenxia Zhao

Xinduo Zhai

College of Science
Tianjin University of Commerce
Tianjin, P.R. China
E-mail: zhaofenxia@sina.com

School of material science and engineering,

Hebei University of Technology
Tianjin, P.R. China
E-mail: myth_zxd@163.com

AbstractThe idea of fractional powers of the Fourier transform operator is a generalization of the Fourier transform. The
application of fractional Fourier transform is as widely as
Fourier transforms. In this paper, a Matrix algorithm of
discrete fractional Fourier transform was proposed, which can
be implemented in Matlab platform more effectively. In the
numeric simulation test, the image chess was encoded with
fractional Fourier transform, the encoded image was decoded
with fractional Fourier transform. The error analysis test
showed the encoded image can be decoded correctly only with
the same parameter; this shows its application for information
transmition over the Internet.

implementation of matrix algorithm will be discussed on

Matlab platform. The error analysis of matrix algorithm will
be discussed in the subsequent Section 4. The conclusion
about the matrix algorithm will be expressed in Section 5.

Keywords-Fractional Fourier Transform, Matrix Algorithm,

Discrete fractional Fourier Transform, Error Analysis

I.

INTRODUCTION

The Fourier transform (FT), as a tool for representing the

relation of signal between the time and space domain, is
widely be used for digital signal processing (DSP) and
digital image processing (DIP). appeared in the
mathematical literature as early as in 1929 [1, 2]. The
fractional Fourier transform was originally introduced in
1980 by Namias as a mathematical tool for solving quantum
mechanics problems [3, 4], but this method did not gain
much attention. Since Mendlovic [5], Ozaktas [6] and A.
W.Lohmann [7, 8] introduced fractional Fourier transform
(FrFT) for image analysis in optics, FrFT has become a
powerful tool for time-varying signal analysis. It was mainly
the optical interpretation and the applications in optics that
gave a burst of publications since the 1990s that culminated
in the book of Ozaktas et al [9].
Many methods for implementation of the FrFT have been
developed, but most of them are to utilize the optical method
or numerical integration. In this paper, we present a new
discrete fractional Fourier transform (DFrFT). This
implementation of DFrFT is based on a matrix algorithm; it
is a generalization of the DFT. Through signal preprocessing such as discretion, the matrix algorithm of DFrFT
can also be used for the continuous case.
This paper is organized as follows. The research results
about Fourier transform (FT) and fractional Fourier
transform (FrFT) are introduced in this section. The
definitions and properties of the fractional Fourier trans-form
(FrFT) will be expressed in Section 2. In section 3, the
matrix algorithm will be described; in this section an

II.

MATRIX ALGORITHM OF DISCRETE FRACTIONAL

FOURIER TRANSFORM (DFRFT)

In this section, the definition of fractional Fourier

transform (FrFT) is given, and then the properties about the
fractional Fourier transform are introduced.
FrFT is a generalization of the Fourier Transform and is
also related to time-frequency analysis tools such as the
Wigner distribution. The FrFT is also called as rotational
Fourier Transform or angular Fourier Transform owing to its
operation of rotation of the Wigner distribution of the given
signal.
Since all the properties of Fourier Transform holding, the
Fractional Fourier Transform possesses tremendous potential
for improvement in the areas where Fourier Transform has
been used. It has found applications in signal processing and
optics, which include signal detection, time variant filtering,
space variant pattern recognition, quantum mechanics etc.
Besides the FrFT has been used to define new timefrequency representation schemes and solve certain kinds of
differential equations.
A.

Definition of fractional Fourier transform

The FrFT is a generalization of the conventional Fourier
transform and has a history in mathematical physics and in
digital signal processing [9]. Basically, it is a one-parameter
subclass of the class of linear canonical transforms. This
parameter is called the fractional order of the transform,
usually denoted as p. Due to some of the FRT properties, we
can usually limit the discussion to the range 0 p 1 .
When p=0, the FrFT coincides with the identity operator, and
when p=1, the FrFT coincides with the Fourier operator.
Therefore, denoted by f p (u ) the FRT of order p of a signal

f (x ) , the free variable u can be interpreted as some hybrid

time/frequency variable: when p=0 it is a time variable, and

when p=1 it is a frequency variable. As p takes values from 0
to 1, the interpretation of u changes gradually from "time" to
"frequency", reflecting temporal changes in the frequency
content of the transformed signal.

The work is supported by the Science and Technology Development Fund for Colleges & Universities of Tianjin (Grant 20070402), China.

978-1-4244-7941-2/10/$26.00 2010 IEEE

The FrFT has several equivalent definitions. One of them

is a kernel-based integral transformation of the form:

f p (u ) = F p [ f ( x)]
= C f ( x) exp[i
where =

p
and
2

u 2 + x2
ux
2i
]dx
tan
sin

sign( )

exp i
4
2

C =
1
sin 2

(1)

(2)

Based on the Wigner chart, an alternative interpretation

for the FRT has been proposed and consolidated [8]: The pth
order fractional Fourier transform corresponds to the
projection on the horizontal axis (in the T-F plane) of the
signal's rotated Wigner distribution. The rotation is in the
clockwise direction by an angle of :
2

f p ( x ) = W f p ( x, ) d
W fp ( x, v) = W f ( x cos v sin , x sin + v cos )
(3)
W f is the Wigner transform. It was shown [9] that

both definitions are equivalent.

B. Properties of the fractional Fourier transform:
Linearity:

F p [c1 f 0 (u ) + c2 g 0 (u )]
= c1 F p [ f 0 (u )] + c2 F p [ g 0 (u )]

(4)

Inverse:

( F p ) 1 = F p

(5)

( F p ) 1 = ( F p ) H

(6)

Unitarity:

Generalized Parsevals theorem:

f (u ) g (u )dx = f
0

III.

*
0

(u ) g *p (u )du

Denoting the kernel matrix of the DFRT of order p by

F p , we can use the following notation for the discrete
transform:

f p = Fp f

is constant given the fractional order.

where

Fourier transform (DFrRT) [9]. Despite some difficulties in

obtaining a closed-form definition of the discrete transform,
an algorithm for computation of the kernel matrix was
presented by Ozaktas et al. [10]. This algorithm, along with a
fast algorithm for digital computation of an approximation of
the continuous transformation [11], enables us to use the
FRT tool in our discrete frame-work.

(7)

IMPLEMENT DETAILS OF DISCRETE FRACTIONAL

FOURIER TRANSFORM

We shall also note that a discrete counterpart of the

above transformation exists, known as the discrete fractional

where

(8)

f and f p denote the input series (vector) and the

transformed series (vector), respectively.

The main point is to construct the eigenvalue
decomposition of the discrete Fourier transform matrix M.
The eigenvectors are discrete analogs of the Gauss-Hermite
eigenfunctions of the continuous transform. In this approximation process, first order approximations or higher order
approximations are possible. It can be shown that as the
length N of the signal goes to infinity, the discrete
eigenvectors are sample values of the continuous
eigenfunctions. However, since there will be finitely many
eigenvectors, only a finite number of eigenvectors can be
constructed of orders 0,1,", N 1 , and as the order is closer
to N , the approximation becomes worse.
Since the eigenvalues of the N N DFT matrix M are
known to be {(-i)n : n = 0,1,", N 1 } if N is even and {(i)n : n = 0,", N 2, N } if N is odd, the diagonal part in the
matrix for the discrete fractional Fourier transform
M = E E T is readily computed, where E is a matrix with
discrete Hermite-Gaussian vectors as columns and is
diagonal matrix of eigenvalues. In one word, the matrix M is
as follows:

1
0
0 " 0
1
2

1 2 cos

1
0 " 0
0

M=0
1
2 cos 1 " 0
0

"
"
" % "
"
"

1
0
0
0 " 1 2 cos(N-1)
(9)
Thus the remaining problem is to compute the matrix M of
eigenvectors.
IV.

NUMERIC SIMULATION RESULT AND ERROR ANALYSIS

OF MATRIX ALGORITHM

Information security has been played more attention in

recent years because of the need of Internet information
transport. Fractional Fourier transform can also be used as a
tool for encoding image that is transmitted over the Internet,
because of the information security. The principle of
encoding image is: over the sending port, an image was

encoded with one rational order of fractional Fourier

transform to get the encoded image, and then the receiving
port, the encoded image was decoded with the same rational
order of fractional Fourier transform, and then the original
image will be obtained. Due to the optical property of
fractional Fourier transform, the encoded image can not be
recovered by ordinary method.
In order to demonstrate the program, in this section, an
image encoding test was shown. Matrix algorithm of
Fractional Fourier transform was implemented over the
Matlab platform. An image named chess was encoded with
rational as 0.6, and then decode the encoded image with the
incorrect and correct rational, the simulation result was
showed in following.
We adopt four images, illustrated in Fig. 1, as the originnal images to demonstrate the effectiveness of our image
encoding algorithm and decoding algorithm. All the images
have dimensions of 512512 pixels.
In Fig. 1, a is the original image, b is the image encoded
with FrFT, the parameter is 0.6, c is the incorrect decoded
result with parameter of -0.9, d shows the correct result of
decoded parameter.
a. The original image

In order to demonstrate the efficiency and security of the

proposed algorithm, the mean square error (MSE) between
the original image and the decoding image. Mathematically,
if o(x, y) and d(x, y) denote the amplitudes of the original
and the decoding image, respectively, at the position(x, y),
the MSE function is then written as

MSE =

1 M N
[o(x, y)-d(x, y)]2

M N x =1 y =1
(10)

With the different parameter, the encoded image was

decoded with fractional Fourier transform. In different cases
the decoding result was evaluated by computing the MSE
functions. Fig.2 showed the error curve. In this curve a
minimum error occurs in = 0 .6 , with this parameter,
fractional Fourier transform decodes the encoded image
correctly. This parameter is the same as the parameter of
encoding. With this error analysis, a conclusion is given: the
fractional Fourier transform can be used to encode digital
signal or digital image for safely digital signal or digital
image transportation over Internet.

b. The encoded image

0.4

100

100

200

200

300

300

400

400

500

0.35
0.3
0.25

500
100 200 300 400 500

c. The incorrect decoded image

100 200 300 400 500

0.2

d. The correct decoded image

0.15

100

100

200

200

300

300

400

400

500

0.1
0.05
0

500
100 200 300 400 500

Fig. 1 a is the original image, b is the image

encoded with FrFT, the parameter is 0.6, c is the
incorrect decoded result with parameter of -0.9, d
shows the correct result of decoded parameter.
V.

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

0.9

100 200 300 400 500

Fig. 2 Fractional Fourier transform MSE analysis. This

curve shows the minimum error occurs in = 0 .6 ,with
this parameter, Fractional Fourier transform decodes the
encoded image correctly.

CONCLUSION

The matrix algorithm of discrete fractional Fourier transform is an approximate method to calculate the FrFT. In the
algorithm, an algorithm for computation of the kernel matrix
was presented. This algorithm, along with a fast algorithm
for digital computation of an approximation of the
continuous transformation, enables us to use the FRT tool in
our discrete frame-work.

The fractional Fourier transform (FrFT) can be used in all

fields of Fourier transform. In this paper, digital image
encoding and decoding was proposed. The encoded digital
image can be transported over Internet safely. The receive
port can decode the encoded digital image with the same
parameter correctly.
The error analysis curve shows: fractional Fourier
transform can be used to encode the digital image, the en-

coded digital image can be decoded correctly by inverse

fractional Fourier transform with the same parameter only.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work is supported by the Science and Technology
Development Fund for Colleges & Universities of Tianjin
(Grant 20070402), China. We also thank the reviewers for
their useful suggestions.

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