Time-frequency methods for signal detection with application to the detection of knock in car engines

We propose time-frequency (TF) formulations, efficient and stable TF design procedures, and an efficient TF implementation for quadratic detectors. Conventional and TF detectors are applied to knock detection and compared with regard to performance and required a priori knowledge. It is shown that TF detectors are advantageous under realistic conditions where robustness and stability are important.