This paper studies a class of filter banks called the Ramanujan filter banks which are based on Ramanujan-sums. It is shown that these filter banks have some important mathematical properties which allow them to reveal localized hidden periodicities in real-time data. These are also compared with traditional comb filters which are sometimes used to identify periodicities. It is shown that non-adaptive comb filters cannot in general reveal periodic components in signals unless they are restricted to be Ramanujan filters. The paper also shows how Ramanujan filter banks can be used to generate time-period plane plots which track the presence of time varying, localized, periodic components.