transfer_function — ACOUSTICS dual op

Data kinds: signal × signaltable

Call: import acoustics; acoustics.transfer_function(x, y, rate, win=None, hop=None, window='hann', estimator='h1', ref=1.0, floor_db=-200.0) (or opsacoustics.get("transfer_function"))

Usage

Estimate `H(f) with x in and y` out, with its coherence.

`estimator`:

• `"h1"Pxy / Pxx`. Unbiased when the noise is on the output.

The usual default and the right one for a driven test.

• `"h2"Pyy / conj(Pxy)`. Unbiased when the noise is on the

input. It over-estimates the magnitude wherever H1 under-estimates it,

so the two together bracket the truth, and `|H1/H2| = gamma**2` exactly —

an identity worth checking rather than a coincidence.

Returns a dict: `freqs, response (complex), magnitude`,

`magnitude_db (relative to ref), phase_rad, coherence`,

`estimator, n_frames, win, hop, rate`.

Measured at 16 kHz over 16384 samples, win = 1024, 31 frames, white input:

• `y = 2.5 * x: mean |H| = 2.5000000000`, max deviation from 2.5 over

all bins 1.78e-15, mean `|phase|` 2.7e-17, mean coherence

1.0000000000.

• `y = 0.8 * x[n-37]`: the phase is a straight line in frequency of slope

`-2 pi * 37 / 16000` s. A least-squares fit to the unwrapped phase over

200-7000 Hz gives a group delay of 37.000004 samples against a true 37

(error 4.3e-06 samples), and `mean |H| = 0.792220` over the same bins

against a true 0.8 (max deviation 0.050).

• `y = 2.5 * x + n` with output noise at 0 dB SNR: H1 gives

`mean |H| = 2.523390` — 0.94 % from the truth — while H2 gives

5.043020, a factor of 2.0 too large, exactly as the theory predicts

when the noise sits on the output. And `|H1/H2|` equals the coherence

pointwise to 5.6e-16 (both mean 0.509143), which is the identity worth

knowing: the ratio of the two estimators *is* the coherence.

That third row is why the coherence is returned with the response. The H2

number is off by 100 % and there is nothing about 5.04 that looks wrong.

Raises `ValueError: everything :func:coherence` refuses, plus an

unknown `estimator and ref <= 0`.

Detailed usage guide

acoustic_condition_monitoring family guide

References (sample data, literature)

• Sample-data catalog (download URLs / licences) — 2-D uses skimage.data (BSD/public domain) plus synthetic images; 3-D lists download URLs for real data sources (Stanford, PDS, …).

• Operator provenance and references — the sources of the research/methods this op family came from.

• The canonical algorithm (author, year) and its uses are named in the family usage guide above.

Runnable examples (verified samples that actually call this op)

acoustic_condition_monitoringpy -3.11 examples/acoustic_condition_monitoring.py

Ops the type connects to (they accept table as input)

istft

Same category (dual)

coherence


*Provenance: acoustics.py — ACOUSTICS operator registry. This per-op note is generated by tools/opdocs.py md (do not hand-edit).*

© 2026 Kazufumi Furuse — Fullseye operator documentation. Licensed under Apache-2.0.