Spectral analysis of laser Doppler signals in real time using digital processing.

A versatile spectrum analyser was developed to generate and display laser Doppler shift signals, and derived parameters, continuously in real time using a digital signal processing chip. A major attraction of the system is that it is entirely programmable, so that both the algorithms and the attributes of the system, such as window function and frame overlap, can be easily altered. It was used to investigate the relative merits of a variety of algorithms using a blood-flow phantom. An index based on the first moment of the Doppler power spectrum was found to be the most reliable flow indicator, with linearity extending towards a velocity of 5 mm s-1 for a blood haematocrit of 5%. The system is not limited to analysis based on the fast Fourier transform (FFT), and is suitable for non-linear techniques such as maximum entropy spectral estimation (MESE).