Bell-shaped nonstationary refinable ripplets

We study the approximation properties of the class of nonstationary refinable ripplets introduced in Gori and Pitolli (2008). These functions are the solution of an infinite set of nonstationary refinable equations and are defined through sequences of scaling masks that have an explicit expression. Moreover, they are variation-diminishing and highly localized in the scale-time plane, properties that make them particularly attractive in applications. Here, we prove that they enjoy Strang-Fix conditions, convolution and differentiation rules and that they are bell-shaped. Then, we construct the corresponding minimally supported nonstationary prewavelets and give an iterative algorithm to evaluate the prewavelet masks. Finally, we give a procedure to construct the associated nonstationary biorthogonal bases and filters to be used in efficient decomposition and reconstruction algorithms. As an example, we calculate the prewavelet masks and the nonstationary biorthogonal filter pairs corresponding to the C ² nonstationary scaling functions in the class and construct the corresponding prewavelets and biorthogonal bases. A simple test showing their good performances in the analysis of a spike-like signal is also presented.