 Orthonormal wavelet

An orthonormal wavelet $\psi$ generates an orthonormal basis of $L^2(\mathbb{R})$ throughThe factor $2^{j/2}$ compensates for the shrinking support of a function, keeping the L2 norm equal to one. Orthogonality makes different coefficients separate squared-norm contributions, and completeness allows the wavelet series to recover any square-integrable function in the L2 norm.

For the Haar wavelet, wavelets at one scale have disjoint supports. At different scales their dyadic intervals are either disjoint or nested. On the support of the finer wavelet, the coarser one is constant, while the finer one has zero integral, so their L2 inner product is zero. Together with the unit L2 norm, this explains orthonormality. On the bounded interval $[0,1]$, add the constant Haar scaling function and use $j\ge 0$, $0\le k<2^j$; the constant function is not an $L^2(\mathbb{R})$ basis element on the whole line.