Time delay - Cross Correlation Situation

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Hi everyone...
I'm trying to calculate time delay using cross correlation but i don't know why i'm having this problem:
a=rand(1,10); %random excitation
x1=[a zeros(1,90)]; %Input signal
x2=[zeros(1,90) 0.8.*a]; %Output signal is a delayed version of x1 attenuated
Delay is equal to 90? right?
Well i should be able to calculate this delay from xc=xcorr(x1,x2);
but once i do this the peak is at xc(10) instead of be positioned at xc(190) now when i do xc=xcorr(x2,x1) peak is right positioned.
I don't know if I made myself clear, but i think that xc=xcorr(x1,x2) should be the correct way to do it....
Please help me here...

Accepted Answer

Honglei Chen
Honglei Chen on 25 Jul 2012
The order basically determines which one is the reference, but you need to set your lag right. The delay between the two is basically 90, so one will give you 90 and the other one is -90. Try the following:
[xc,lags] = xcorr(x2,x1);
plot(lags,xc)
[xc,lags] = xcorr(x1,x2);
plot(lags,xc)
  2 Comments
Gabriel González
Gabriel González on 26 Jul 2012
I understand, but still i'm not sure because if i do [xc,lags] = xcorr(x1,x2) i should have a delay equal to 90 not -90 which is what i got...
could I be conceptually wrong?
Honglei Chen
Honglei Chen on 26 Jul 2012
You may be using a different convention? The definition of the correlation in the doc page may clarify it for you.

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