What is interpolation?

Interpolation is defined by the authors of our book as the fitting of a continuous signal to a set of sample values, and is a commonly used procedure to reconstruct a function from its samples.

Types of interpolation

Zero order interpolation:

In this type of interpolation the function holds its current value until the next sample is taken. A good example of this is a series of step functions.

First order interpolation:

In this type of interpolation the samples are connected by a straight line. An example of this is a series of ramp functions.

N-th order interpolation:

In this type of interpolation the samples are connected with a n-th order function. For example with 2nd order interpolation the samples would be connected with a quadratic function.

As the order of the interpolation increases the reconstruction of the CT signal from the sampled signal approximates the original CT signal better.

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