February Fourier Talks 2008

A Fast Discrete Hermite Transform - Theory and Practice

Recently, Hermite expansions have been identified as an interesting alternative to Fourier expansions for various problems in image processing and protein structure determination. Their utility derives from a certain rotational invariance that they possess. In this talk we discuss a new algorithm (and its implementation) for the efficient computation of discrete forward and inverse Hermite transform. The results show that the fast Hermite transform (FHT) is a computationally viable alternative to the well-known FFT. This is joint work with G. Chirikjian (JHU), G. Leibon (Dartmouth), W. Park (JHU), and R. Taintor (Dartmouth).