Book excerpt: In two editions spanning more than a decade, The Electrical Engineering Handbook stands as the definitive reference to the multidisciplinary field of electrical engineering. Our knowledge continues to grow, and so does the Handbook. For the third edition, it has expanded into a set of six books carefully focused on a specialized area or field of study. Each book represents a concise yet definitive collection of key concepts, models, and equations in its respective domain, thoughtfully gathered for convenient access. Circuits, Signals, and Speech and Image Processing presents all of the basic information related to electric circuits and components, analysis of circuits, the use of the Laplace transform, as well as signal, speech, and image processing using filters and algorithms. It also examines emerging areas such as text-to-speech synthesis, real-time processing, and embedded signal processing. Each article includes defining terms, references, and sources of further information. Encompassing the work of the world's foremost experts in their respective specialties, Circuits, Signals, and Speech and Image Processing features the latest developments, the broadest scope of coverage, and new material on biometrics.