Book: Marine Bioacoustic Signal Processing

As the number of researchers and students entering the field of marine bioacoustics has grown, the types of signal processing, measurement, and analysis have undergone a parallel increase in sophistication. Acoustic signal processing has long been the domain of electrical and mechanical engineers, physicists, and mathematicians. However, more and more biologists and psychologists are starting to use advanced signal processing techniques and analyses, especially with the influx of the many signal processing programs now available. What is lacking for many of these new users is an understanding of the theoretical underpinnings of different techniques. This has happened because the learning curve can be rather steep, especially for those in the biological and psychological sciences, and the theoretical constructs are often ignored or deemed to difficult to comprehend. This also applies to many students and beginning researchers with a physical science background, since various ideas and methodologies are scattered across different texts and manuscripts. Dr. Whitlow Au, of the University of Hawaii, and I are writing a book on animal bioacoustics that brings together ideas, concepts and methods that are often found in diverse texts and manuscripts. [Dr. Au has a separate ONR grant and is not a co-PI on this one.] We are approaching basic principles from the perspective of processing and analyzing acoustic signals emitted by animals. The book is aimed at advanced undergraduates and beginning graduate students - people with some background in sound analysis who come from a background in either an animal communication or signal processing. Our goal is to make a practical guide by which people can understand and use the tools we have, rather than an theoretical exposition of the frontiers of our field. Such a book, written with animal bioacousticians in mind, is strongly needed in order for the field to grow in fruitful directions.