Introduction to the Discrete Shapelet Transform and
a new paradigm: joint time-frequency-shape
analysis.
Rodrigo Capobianco Guido, Sylvio Barbon Junior, Lucimar Sasso Vieira, Fabrcio Lopes Sanchez,
Carlos Dias Maciel, Jose Carlos Pereira, Paulo Rogerio Scalassara, Everthon Silva Fonseca.
SpeechLab, Department of Physics and Informatics, Institute of Physics at Sao Carlos, University of Sao Paulo.
Av. Trabalhador Sao Carlense 400 - 13566-590, Sao Carlos - SP, Brazil.
Phone: 55 - 16 - 33739789. e-mail: guido@ifsc.usp.br
Abstract This paper introduces the paradigm of joint time-
frequency-shape analysis of discrete-time signals by means of a
novel transform called Discrete Shapelet Transform (DST)1 . This
approach allows one to find the time-support of frequencies, and,
at the same time, analyze a shape. Applications are possible for
a diversity of fields in signal processing, and the results assure
the ecacy of the proposed transform.
I. Introduction and Motivation
Much research and literature have appeared recently describing
techniques for time-frequency analysis of signals, being the Discrete
Wavelet Transform (DWT) [1] the most traditional and widely
known tool for this purpose. In the same way, the eld of pattern
matching [2], and also wavelet-based pattern matching [3], have
attracted much attention from the scientic community during the
last decades, specially for speech recognition, biomedical signal
processing, computer vision, besides others applications.
In order to improve the traditional time-frequency signal analysis
approaches, this article proposes the concept of joint time-frequency-
shape analysis of discrete-time signals. This approach is possible by
means of the Discrete Shapelet Transform (DST), a novel transform
used to nd the time-support of frequencies, and, at the same time,
match patterns. Shapelet is inspired on two works: Spikelet and
Speechlet. The former, described in the awarded paper in [4], relates
to the creation of a novel wavelet transform that distinguishes among
seven patterns of spikes and overlaps from H1, a motion sensitive
neuron of the ys visual system. The latter corresponds to the
adaptation of Spikelet to distinguish among patterns of normal and
pathologically aected voice signals. Although these experiments
were successful, the last two transforms could not assure the ecacy
of the pattern matching for a wide diversity of input signals due to
the use of the Least-Squares adjustment that somewhat disturbs the
shape matching. The adequate conditions for vanishing moments
and perfect reconstruction [1] could also not be achieved. These
drawbacks justify the present research to improve the previous ideas
and create the DST.
The remainder of this work is organized as follows. Section
II details the construction of Shapelets, where the basic concepts of
wavelet transforms are also reviewed, since DSTs are inspired on
DWTs. DSTs are used to match patterns according to the algorithms
described in section III. An example Shapelet is designed in section
1 This
work is funded by the State of Sao Paulo Research Foundation, Brazil,
under process nr. 2005/00015-1)
978-1-4244-1684-4/08/$25.00 2008 IEEE
http://speechlab.ifsc.usp.br
IV. Applications, tests and comparisons are presented in section V
and, lastly, section VI presents the conclusions.
II. The Construction of Shapelets
The elements that form the Shapelet structure, which are similar
to the elements of the DWT structure, are:
a low-pass half-band nite impulse response (FIR) [1] lter,
p[n], which has a frequency response P[] so that P[ = ] = 0,
and a phase response that is not necessarily linear;
the corresponding FIR high-pass mirror lter, q[n], dened as
qk = (1)k pNk1 ;
the FIR lter p [n], dened as p k = pNk1 ;
the FIR lter q[n],
dened as q k = (1)k+1 pk ;
the support-size of the lters, i.e., the number of coecients or
the length, N, (N  4), that must be even;
the minor and major shapelet functions, as discussed later.
The lters p[n] and q[n] form the analysis lter pair, and the lters
p [n] and q[n]
form the synthesis lter pair. The former pair is used
to transform the original signal from the time-domain to the time-
frequency-shape domain, and the latter pair is used to invert the
transformation, restoring the original signal from the transformed
one. The requirements above for p[n], q[n], p[n],
q[n],
and N, force
the lters to form a perfect-reconstruction lter bank (PRFB) [1],
i.e., the anti-aliasing conditions, in equation 1, and the no-distortion
condition, in equation 2, both in z-domain, are satised.
= Q[z] ,
P[z] = P[z] .
Q[z] (1)
P[z]P[z] + Q[z]Q[z]
= 2zN+1 . (2)
Once the coecients of one of the FIR lters specied above are
determined, Shapelet can be completely dened. To determine them,
the next algorithm, with ve sequences of steps, has to be followed:
sequence A, sequence B, sequence C, sequence D (D1 and D2) and
sequence E. Sequences A, B, C, and D can happen in parallel, but
E requires the completion of the previous sequences to be carried
out. A detailed description of A, B, C, D, and E follows in order to
determine q[n].
Step A: Let the lter have unitary energy, i.e.,

N1
qk 2 = 1 . (3)
k=0
2893
 Step B: Impose the orthogonality conditions among the trans- where:
lations of the lter:
(x) and (x) are orthonormal and form a Riesz basis [1] to

N1
write f (x), being the area under (x) unitary;
qk qk+2l = 0,l , (4)
k=0
 and D
Y  are the projections of f (x) onto the subspaces V and
being the Dirac delta, and l Z. W, respectively;
Step C: Produce a system with N2 1 vanishing moments, i.e., Vi and Wi , the coarse shape and the fine shape subspaces,

N1 respectively, are orthogonal, and Vi+1 = Vi Wi ;
qk kb = 0 , (5) {0}... V1 V0 V1 ...L2 ;
k=0
f (n) Vi f (2n) Vi+1
for b = 0, 1, ..., N2 2.
f (n) V0 f (n + 1) V0 ;
Step D1: Calculate the fractal dimension, Dm , (1  Dm  2)
of the non-constant matching signal m[n], i.e., the signal that iZ Vi is dense in L2 (R), and iZ Vi = {0}.
Shapelet is intended to match, which is of unconstrained length,
by using the power spectrum method, as explained in [5]. Other
methods were discarded due to their higher order of complexity B. The DST of a discrete-time signal
and/or results that worsen as the fractal dimension increases. Exactly as the DWT, the DST of a discrete-time signal f [n] with
Step D2: Calculate the rst level DST of m[n], (DST(m[n])), length X is dened as being another discrete signal of the same length,
as explained in sub-sections II-B and II-C, using the generic being X a power of 2. From f [n] it is possible to derive a jth level
lters p[n] and q[n] of support N in the unknowns p0 , ..., pN1 DST, being j  log(X)
log(2)
, j Z. The rst level of decomposition of
and q0 , ..., qN1 . Then, obtain the fractal dimension, Dt , of f [n] generates two other signals with lengths X2 that are called master
DST(m[n]), that is a non-linear equation in the same unknowns, shape signal and second-rated shape signal. The former results from
and let the convolution of f [n] with p[n] followed by a downsampling by 2,
Dt = Dm , (6) and the latter corresponds to the signal obtained from the convolution
aiming at maintaining the degree of self-similarity between the of f [n] with q[n], followed by the same downsampling process, both
original and transformed signals. The equation wrapped around. The concatenation of master with second-rated is
the DST of f [n]. From the master signal, the decomposition can
pk = 1k+1 qNk1 continue recursively until the highest possible level.
must be used so that Dt becomes a function of q[n] only.
Step E1: Group together the only equation of step A, the N2 1 C. DST and inverse DST calculation
equations of step B, the N2 1 equations of step C, and the The calculation of the DST and its inverse (IDST) can be per-
only equation of step D2, resulting in a non-linear system of N formed with the use of Mallats algorithm [1]. For the computation
equations in N unknowns. of the DST, this algorithm requires only the lters p[n] and q[n], and,
Step E2: Solve the system using any iterative numerical pro- in the same way, for the computation of the IDST, only the lters p [n]
cedure, such as the Newtons method, and output the set of and q[n]
are used. Particularly, if A is the N x N matrix formed by the
coecients qi . coecients of p[n] and q[n], and B is the N x 1 matrix containing the
For the particular case that m[n] is the input signal and q[n] is the original input signal in the time-domain, then, C = AB corresponds to
shapelet lter optimized for m[n], the fractal dimensions of m[n] and the transformed signal in the time-frequency-shape domain. In order
DST(m[n]) are the same, i.e., the DST preserves the degree of self- to obtain the IDST of a signal, only the multiplication of A1 by C
similarity of the input signal for which it was designed. is required, being A1 = AT the matrix that contains the coecients
of p [n] e q[n].
The even coecients of C (c0 , c2 , ..., cn2 ) form the
A. Major and Minor Shapelets master shape signal and the odd coecients (c1 , c3 , ..., cn1 ) form
the second-rated signal. The matrices, that embed the processes of
Since nite length and certain frequency response conditions were downsampling and wraparound [1], are formed as follows.
imposed on the set of lters above, they originate nite length con-
tinuous functions or small waves of particular shapes, i.e., shapelets,
in the same way the DWT does. Particularly, there are two functions A[][] =
named major shapelet,

p0 p1 p2 ... ... ...
... pn1 0 0 0 0 ... ... 0 0

q0 q1 q2 ... ... ...
... qn1 0 0 0 0 ... ... 0 0
(x) = pk (2x k) , ...
... ... ... pn1 0 0 ... ...
0 0 p0 p1 p2
...
... ... ... qn1 0 0 ... ...
0 0

k 0
...
0 q0
... ...
q1
...
q2
... ...
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
0
...
0
...
... ... ... ... ... ...
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ,
and minor shapelet, . . . . . .
 . . . . . .
(x) = qk (2x k) , . . . . . .
pn2 pn1 0 0 ... ... ... 0 0 p0 p1 ... ... ... pn4 pn3
k qn2 qn1 0 0 ... ... ... 0 0 q0 q1 ... ... ... qn4 q n3

similar to the father and mother functions [1] of the DWT, re-
spectively. Neither nor are required to calculate the DST of
b0 c0
a signal, however, they play an important role in terms of signal c1
decomposition, since the jth level DST of a signal f (x), consists of b1
c...2
b2
...
writing it as the linear combination of these two functions, according b3

B[] = C[] = ....
...
to equation 7. ... , .
. .
 
j  . .
. cn2
f (x) = < f, j,k (x) > j,k (x) + < f, t,k (x) > t,k (x) , (7) bn2
cn1
k t=1 k bn1
 
Y 
D

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 III. Pattern Matching with Shapelets
(0;4533) (1;5562)
(y)
A. The time-frequency-shape approach (2;6517)
(4;7858)
(3;7358)
(5;7278) 104
(6;4903) (7;187)
As dened above, the DST of a discrete-time signal f [n] generates (8;6648) (9;14330) 0
another discrete signal that belongs to a time-frequency-shape plane. (10;21331) (11;26532)
(12;29400) (13;29865)
It means that it is possible to use the DST to nd two basic (14;28071) (15;24728) 104
relationships: the time-supports of frequencies, and the time-supports (16;20572) (17;15930)
(18;11207) (19;6682)
of a particular shape contained in f [n]. Particularly, it is possible (20;2644) (21;807)
2 104
to discover the time interval in which a certain shaped signal exists (22;3627) (23;5771)
(24;7318) (25;8302) 3 104
inside a certain sub-band of frequencies. The former relation can be (26;8771) (27;8772)
found by using exactly the same procedure adopted with the DWT. (28;8421) (29;7822) 0 10 20 30 (x)
(30;7044) (31;6222)
Since this procedure is widely known and can be easily found in Fig. 1: the matching signal m[n]
the literature [1], it is not described here. The latter relation is the
focus of this section, existing basically two objectives: to measure the A. Designing the filter bank
degree of similarity between an unknown signal and a signal with a
According to the algorithm presented in section II, the following
particular shape, and to classify a pattern among several templates.
system of equations is obtained for the example signal m[n]:
The algorithms in the next two subsections carry out each one of
these tasks.



q0 2 + q1 2 + q2 2 + q3 2 =1
q0 q2 + q1 q3 =0


q0 + q1 + q2 + q3 =0
D(q0 , q1 , q2 , q3 , m[n]) = 1.24638
B. The algorithm for shape analysis
The algorithm described below measures the degree of similarity being D(q0 , q1 , q2 , q3 , m[n]) the fractal dimension of DST(m[n]), that
between a discrete-time unknown signal, u[n], and a signal of interest, is an equation in the unknowns q0 , ..., q3 , and 1.24638 the fractal
m[n], in a particular sub-band of frequencies. dimension of m[n]. The system has the solution:
q = 0.14016652716275140 p = 0.43255112987095045
BEGINNING

0

0
q1 = 0.27455565131559717 p1 = 0.84727330834929903
Step SA-1: Create one Shapelet S , i.e., one set of lters,

=


qq2 == 0.84727330834929903
0.43255112987095045
pp2 == 0.27455565131559717
0.14016652716275140
considering m[n] as being the matching signal; 3 3

Step SA-2: Calculate the lth level DST of u[n], being l in The next two subsections show how to nd and , by using the
accordance to the sub-band of interest; 
N1
lters coecients, being pk = 2 the normalization required to do
Step SA-3: Obtain the similarity rate, R = (1||)100%, (0  k=0
R  100%), and being, respectively, the fractal dimension so, since the area under the major shapelet is unitary.
of u[n] and the fractal dimension of DST(u[n]). The higher the
value of R, the more similar u[n] and m[n] are in the particular B. The major shaplet
band of frequencies being considered;
The major shapelet,
 (x), dened recursively using the dilation
END. equation (n) = pk (2n k) for a system of support N = 4, does
k
not exist outside the interval [0 3]. We therefore get:
C. The algorithm for pattern classification



(0) = p0 (0)
The algorithm to use the DST for pattern classication follows. (1) = p0 (2) + p1 (1) + p2 (0)


(2) = p1 (3) + p2 (2) + p3 (1)
To carry it out, a set of J template models, i.e., = {1 , 2 ,..., J }, (3) = p3 (3)
and the input signal, U , which is of unknown pattern, are assumed.

p0 0 0 0
(0)
BEGINNING and T = (1)

or MT = T , being M =
p2 p1 p0 0
0 p3 p2 p1
(2) . So, matrix T
Step PC-1: Create one Shapelet S i , i.e., one set of lters, for 0 0 0 p3 (3)
each i , (1  i  J); with scaling function values is the eigenvector of M  corresponding
Step PC-2: Calculate J lth level DSTs of U , each one using to eigenvalue 1. Using the normalizing condition (k) = 1, we
k
one S i obtained in step PM-1, being l in accordance with the get:

sub-band of interest;


(p0 1)(0) = 0
(0) = (3) = 0

p2 (0) + (p1 1)(1) + p0 (2) = 0

(p1 1)(1) + p0 (2) = 0

Step PC-3: For each DST, obtain one Ri = (1 |i i |) 100%,



p3 (1) + (p2 1)(2) + h1 (3) = 0 ()


p3 (1) + (p2 1)(2) = 0 .
(0  Ri  100%), considering the matched pattern as the one



(p3 1)(3) = 0 (1) + (2) = 1
with the highest score in the comparison, i.e., the highest value (0) + (1) + (2) + (3) = 1
for Ri ; being the transformation () due to the fact that p0 , ..., p3  0. The
END. solution of this last system gives the response for the integer points,
whereas the intermediate points satisfy ( 2x ) = pk (x k). Thus:
1 k


( 23) = p0 (1)
IV. Example: designing a Shapelet
( ) = p (2) + p (1) .
( 52 ) = p13 (2) 2
2
In this section, a Shapelet system with support-size 4 is designed
to match the signal m[n] that is shown in gure 1 together with the For p[n] designed above we get:
numerical values (x = sample; y = amplitude) for each one of its
32 points. The length of m[n] is arbitrary: 32 is merely the example (0) = 0 ; ( 12 ) = 0.2932 ; (1) = 0.4794 ;
used in this case. ( 32 ) = 1.5863 ; (2) = 1.4794 ; ( 52 ) = 0.2932 ; (3) = 0.

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 - P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 P6 P7
C. The minor shapelet R 98% 96% 94% 90% 84% 83% 80%

Using the equation (n) = qk (2n k), we get:
TABLE I
k


(0) = q0 (0)
(0) = (3) = 0 Results for shape analysis; (R: similarity rate).
(1) = q0 (2) + q1 (1) + q2 (0)

(2) = q1 (3) + q2 (2) + q3 (1) =

(1) = q0 (2) + q1 (1) .
(3) = q3 (3)
(2) = q2 (2) + q3 (1)

For the intermediary points, ( 2x ) = qk (x k). Then, we - P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 P6 P7
k R(T 1 ) 100% 97% 96% 94% 84% 83% 80%
get: R(T 2 ) 94% 100% 96% 94% 85% 83% 80%


( 23) = q0 (1)
1
R(T 3 ) 96% 94% 100% 93% 86% 85% 82%

( 2 ) = q1 (2) + q2 (1)
( 5 ) = q3 (2)
.
R(T 4 ) 90% 92% 92% 100% 89% 88% 90%
2
R(T 5 ) 92% 93% 90% 92% 100% 98% 90%
For q[n] designed above, the results are: R(T 6 ) 92% 90% 93% 94% 98% 100% 90%
R(T 7 ) 89% 90% 92% 93% 88% 87% 100%
(0) = 0 ; ( 12 ) = 0.0950 ; (1) = 0.1071 ;
( 32 ) = 1.1486 ; (2) = 2.0656 ; ( 52 ) = 0.9048 ; (3) = 0. TABLE II
Results for pattern classification; (R: similarity rate).
Figure 2 shows, respectively, the major and minor shapelet functions.
(y)
(y)
2
1.5

1 1
0.5
0
0
1 algorithms for pattern matching. The proposed approach (DST) is
0.5
0 1 2 3 (x) 0 1 2 3
Fig. 2. [left]: major shapelet ; [right]: minor shapelet ; (x: sample ; y:
amplitude).
V. Tests and comparisons
A. Shape analysis for biological data
The algorithm presented in section 3.2 and the shapelet designed
in the last section were used to measure the degree of similarity
between the input signal m[n], i.e., the signal shown in gure 1, and
7 other patterns extracted from biological data [4], that are shown in
gure 3. Clearly, the signals P1 and P7 are, respectively, the most
similar (almost identical, in this case) and the most dierent patterns
in comparison to m[n]. The results presented in table I indicate that
the proposed technique identied these patterns.
B. Pattern classification for biological data
The 7 signals shown on gure 3 were also used for pattern
classication, according to the algorithm presented in section 3.3.
Particularly, one shapelet S i was designed for each Pi and 7 tests
were performed. For each test T i , the input signal Pi was compared
to the set of signals {P1 , ..., P7 } by using S i , in the rst level of
decomposition. The results shown in table II demonstrate the ecacy
of the DST in each test.
C. Pattern classification for speech data
DSTs were used for pattern classication among short speech
utterances sampled at 8000Hz, 16-bit, particularly the phonemes /a/,
/e/, /i/, /o/, and /u/ extracted from the words dogma, men, ship, boy,
and super, respectively. The same procedure presented in sub-section
5.2 was carried out, and the experiment was repeated with 8 speakers,
4 male and 4 female, aged from 20 to 60. In all the tests, the correct
pattern was classied.
D. Comparisons and discussion
Dynamic Time Warping (DTW) [2] is one of the most used
(x)
much faster than DTW, since the latter algorithm has a higher order
of complexity in relation to the lengths of the input and the templates,
furthermore, it was not designed for joint time-frequency-shape
analysis. Particularly, no other well-known pattern matching approach
was designed for this joint analysis. In regard to the DST, the support-
size of the lters must be chosen according to the requirements for
frequency selectivity and time resolution, exactly as the DWT works
[1]. In the same way, the level of decomposition can be chosen
according to the sub-band frequency of interest. For pattern matching
and shape analysis, the IDST is not required, however, depending
on the specic application, for instance joint pattern matching and
compression, where some coecients of the transformed signal are
modied or discarded, the IDST is needed, since the original signal
must be reconstructed. This justies the design of orthogonal PRFBs
and the specication of (x) and (x).
VI. Conclusions
This paper introduced the Discrete Shapelet Transform, a novel
tool for joint time-frequency-shape analysis of discrete-time signals,
which extends the traditional wavelet transform so that a shape
analysis becomes possible. The results obtained for pattern matching
and shape analysis show the ecacy of the proposed approach, that
is much faster than other similar techniques.
References
[1] Strang, G.; Nguyen, T., Wavelets and Filter Banks, Wellesley-Cambridge
Press, Wellesley, 1997.
[2] Theodoridis, S.; Koutroumbas, K. Pattern Recognition, 3.ed. Academic
Press, 2006.
[3] Chapa, J.O.; Rao, R.M., Algorithms for designing wavelets to match
a specied signal, IEEE Trans. on Signal Processing, v.48, n.12, Dec-
2000, pp.3395-3406.
[4] Guido, R. C.; Slaets, J. F. W. ; Koberle, R. ; Almeida, L. O. B. ; Pereira,
J. C. A New Technique to construct a wavelet transform matching a
specied signal with applications to digital, real-time, spike and overlap
pattern recognition, Digital Signal Processing, v. 16, n. 1, Jan-2006, pp.
24-44.
[5] Al-Akaidi, M. Fractal Speech Processing, Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge, 2004.

Fig. 3. The 7 patterns used during the tests. Their names are, from left to
right: P1 , ..., P7 .

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