
220 
Two-Dimensional Discrete Fourier Transform 
Computational complexity 
The computational complexity of an TV x N 2-D DFT of complex data is 
2N times that of the 1-D DFT algorithm used. The twiddle factors can be 
generated once for all the rows and once for all the columns. This overhead 
is,
 therefore, becomes negligible. Consequently, no table is necessary for the 
storage of twiddle factors. Further, the use of one-dimensional indexing and 
the 1-D PM DFT algorithms makes the row-column approach of computing 
the 2-D DFT practically very efficient. A single algorithm for complex data 
is enough for both the DFT and IDFT computation. As in the case of the 
1-D IDFT, for the 2-D IDFT computation using DFT, the data is to be 
read and written with the imaginary and real parts interchanged. 
10.6 Summary 
• In this chapter, the theory, properties, and algorithms of the DFT of 
2-D signals were presented. In the case of 2-D signals, Fourier anal-
ysis decomposes an arbitrary signal into a set of sinusoidal surfaces 
of various frequencies, amplitudes, phases, and directions. Some 
examples of simple 2-D signals and their DFTs were given. 
• The 2-D DFT is a straightforward extension of the 1-D DFT. There-
fore,
 practically efficient 2-D DFT algorithms are obtained by the 
repeated use of the 1-D DFT algorithms. The computation of the 
2-D DFT of real-valued signals is also similar to that of the 1-D 
DFT. 
References 
(1) Gonzalez, R. C. and Woods, P. (1987) Digital Image Processing, 
Addison Wesley, Reading, Mass. 
(2) Jain, A. K. (1989) Fundamentals of Digital Image Processing, Prentice-
Hall, New Jersey. 
(3) Sundararajan, D., Ahmad, M. 0. and Swamy, M. N. S. (1994) 
"Computational Structures for Fast Fourier Transform Analyzers", 
U.S. Patent, No. 5,371,696.