Walsh & Hadamard Transforms

1-D Walsh Transform

We define the 1-D Walsh transform as

1
W (u )
N

N 1

x 0

n 1

f ( x) (1) bi ( x )bn1i (u )
i 0

The inverse Walsh transform is

1
f ( x)
N

N 1

n 1

u 0

i 0

bi ( x ) bn1i ( u )
W
(
u
)
(

1
)

1-D WT Cont..

bk(z) is the kth bit in the binary representation

of z.
Example:

If
Then

z = 6 (110 in binary)
b0(z) = 0; b1(z) = 1;

b2(z) = 1;

So a Walsh basis matrix for N = 2n can be formed

from the equation as follows.

Walsh Basis Function

For N = 4; n = 2.
The basis function h(x,u) is found from
n 1

h( x, u ) ( 1) bi ( x ) bn1i ( u )
i 0

x = 00, 01, 10, 11

u = 00, 01, 10, 11

Walsh Transformation matrix

Thus the Walsh transformation matrix for N=4

will be

1
1

1 1
1 1 1 1

1 1 1 1
1

1-D WT Cont..

We can see that the array formed by the Walsh kernels or

basis vectors are symmetric matrix having orthogonal rows
and columns. Or the basis functions of the transform are
orthogonal.
Unlike fourier transform, which is based on trigonometric
terms, the Walsh transform consists of a series expansion
of basis functions whose values are only 1 and -1.These
functions can be implemented more efficiently in a digital
environment than exponential basis functions of fourier
transform.
The forward and inverse Walsh kernels are identical except
for a constant multiplicative factor of 1/N for 1-D.

2-D Walsh Transform

The 2-D Walsh transform is defined as

1
W (u , v)
N

N 1

N 1

x 0

y 0

n 1

f ( x, y ) (1) bi ( x ) bn1i ( u ) bi ( y )bn1i ( v )

i 0

The inverse transform is given by

1
f ( x, y )
N

N 1

u 0

N 1

n 1

v 0

i 0

bi ( x ) bn1i ( u ) bi ( y ) bn1i ( v )
W
(
u
,
v
)
(

1
)

2-D Walsh Basis Images

Since the basis functions of the 2-D Walsh transform is separable we can
find the basis images by taking the outer product of the rows and columns
of the 1-D Wash basis matrix.
1 1 1 1
1 1 1 1

1 1 1 1

1
1
1
1

1 1 1 1 1 1
1 1 1 1 1 1

1 1 1 1 1 1

1
1

1 1

1 1 1 1
1 1 1 1
1 1 1 1

1 1 1 1

1 1
1 1
1 1

1 1

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

1
1
1

1
1

1
1

1
1
1

2-D Walsh transform Cont..

We can see that the forward and inverse Walsh kernels are
identical for 2-D.This is because the array formed by the
kernel is a symmetric matrix having orthogonal rows and
columns, so its inverse array is the array itself.

The concept of frequency in Walsh transform can be thought

of as the number of zero crossings or the number of
transitions in the basis vector. This number is called
sequency.

The Walsh transform also exhibits the property of energy

compaction.

Walsh Basis images

Fast Walsh Transform

For the fast computation of the Walsh

transform there exist an algorithm called
Fast Walsh Transform (FWT). It is a
straightforward modification of the
successive doubling method used to
implement FFT

Hadamard Transform 1-D

The 1-D Hadamard transform is defines as

1
H (u )
N

N 1

f ( x) (1)

n 1

bi ( x ) bi ( u )

i 0

x 0

The inverse Hadamard transform is

f ( x)

N 1

H (u ) (1)
u 0

n 1

bi ( x ) bi ( u )

i 0

1-D Hadamard Matrix

The 1-D Hadamard matrix can be obtained in a similar

way to that of the formulation of Walsh transformation
matrix. It differs from Walsh transform only in the order
of basis functions.
The Hadamard Transformation matrix for N=4 will be
obtained as

1 1 1 1
1 1 1 1

1 1 1 1

1 1 1 1

2-D Hadamard Transform

The 2-D Hadamard transformations can be written as

1
H (u , v )
N

N 1

N 1

f ( x, y ) (1)
x 0

n 1

bi ( x ) bi ( u ) bi ( y ) bi ( v )

i 0

y 0

The inverse transform is given by

1
f ( x, y )
N

N 1

N 1

H (u, v) (1)
u 0

v 0

n 1

bi ( x ) bi ( u ) bi ( y ) bi ( v )

i 0

Hadamard Matrix Formation

The higher order Hadamard transformation matrices can be

formulated using a simple recursive relationship.
The Hadamard matrix of lowest order, N=2 is
1 1
H2

If HN represent the matrix of order N, the recursive

relationship is given by the expression
HN HN
H 2N

H
N
N

H2N is the Hadamard

matrix of order 2N

Hadamard Matrix Formation Cont..

Thus H4 matrix can be formed as follows

1 1 1 1
H4

1 1 1 1
1 1 1 1
1 1 1 1

Ordered Hadamard Matrix

To arrange the basis vectors in the order of

increasing sequency.
This is achieved by defining the transformation
equation as follows.
1
H (u )
N

N 1

n 1

bi ( x ) pi (u )

f ( x) (1) i0

x 0

p0(u) = bn-1(u)

p1(u) = bn-1(u) + bn-2(u)

Ordered Hadamard Matrix Cont..

The ordered Hadamard matrix thus for N=4 is

obtained as
1 1 1 1
1 1 1 1

H
1 1 1 1

1 1 1 1

Ordered Hadamard basis images

Comparison

The Walsh transform has a fast computation method

similar to FFT.

The Hadamard transform matrix is easy to obtain

from the lowest order matrix by the iteration
procedure. But the order of the basis functions does
not allow a fast computation method.

The ordered Hadamard transform overcomes this

difficulties. It has a Fast Hadamard Transform
method for faster computation, at the same time
exhibits energy compaction properties.