Universal Short-Time Fourier Transform: Data-Adaptive Window-Length Selection for Time-Frequency Analysis

Abstract

The short-time Fourier transform (STFT) characterizes the local frequency content of time-varying signals by evaluating the discrete Fourier transform over a sliding analysis window. The STFT is governed by a fundamental resolution trade-off: a short window localizes rapid transients in time at the cost of frequency resolution, whereas a long window resolves closely spaced harmonics at the expense of temporal resolution. The Universal Short-Time Fourier Transform (U-STFT) resolves this trade-off sequentially by modeling the analysis window duration as a data-adaptive state variable that indexes the number of hops included in the current observation interval. At each frame, a bank of candidate window durations is scored using normalized order-three Rényi entropy to quantify joint time-frequency concentration. A window length trellis aggregates the resulting $\mathcal{O}(3^M)$ candidate window schedules with linear complexity per frame, guaranteeing a cumulative mix-loss regret bound of $\mathcal{O}((k+1)\log M)$ relative to any hindsight window schedule with $k$ resolution changes over $M$ frames. By linearity of the Fourier transform, posterior expectation across the candidate bank yields a single spectrum equivalent to an STFT evaluated with a data-adaptive effective window, while an envelope-normalized synthesis stream guarantees exact overlap-add reconstruction. Evaluations on synthetic and marine bioacoustic signals demonstrate adaptive resolution tracking, enhanced spectral concentration, and exact time-domain invertibility.

arXiv comment12 pages; 7 figures; SANE 2026, ASA 2026