Introduction to Interpolation

 What is Interpolation?

Interpolation, to simply explain, is a mathematical process in which we attempt to "generate" a continuous datasets from the limited discrete data points existed.

To better explain the process of interpolation, consider the following situation. We have these following data points which are a discrete digital samples from an unknown waveform.

Using the most simple interpolation algorithm, the linear interpolation. In which we simply "connect the dots" of the digital sample points, we observe that the "interpolated" waveform is similar to the sine wave.

There are several interpolation algorithms that has been introduced over the year, some of these are...

1. Polynomial Interpolations

2. Splines Interpolation

3. Gaussian Interpolation

Interpolations are widely uses in many applications, the example of these application that we may sees is the reconstruction of a digital audio files that has been overdriven to a "clipping"

In which, interpolation can help to restore part of the clipped data.

In the next post, we'll be looking at using some of the programming languages to enable us to perform and implement simple interpolation algorithm and visualize them graphically.