Compression it is a compact representation of data.

Examples for the kind of data to compress:

text
source code
arbitrary files
images
video
audio data
speech
Different ways how to classify compression techniques, depending on the:
type of data to be compressed
target application area
fundamental building blocks of the algorithms used
Basic Teminology:

Codec means a complete system capable of encoding and decoding data which consists of an
Encoder and a Decoder

Transcoding conversion from one encoded digital representation into another one.

Compression rate (or Compression ration) defines the relation between the size of the original
data before compression and the size of the compressed data. It rate the effectivity of a compression
system in terms of data reduction capability.

Purpose of compression:
To efficiently use storage space
To save on transmission capacity
To save on transmission time
Three important factors/trends which describes the importance/purpose of compression technology:
1. The availability of highly effective methods for compressing various types of data
2. The availability of fast and cheap hardware components to conduct compression on single-chip
systems, microprocessors, DSPs and VLSI systems
3. Convergence of computer, communication, consumer electronics, publishing, and entertainment
industries
The possibility to compress data:
Compression-enabling properties:
1. Statistical redundancy - in non-compressed data, all symbols are represented with the same
number of bits independent of their relative frequency (fixed length representation)
2. Correlation adjacent data samples tend to be equal or similar
Types of correlation:
A. Spatial correlation
B. Spectral correlation
C. Temporal correlation
HISTORY OF COMPRESSION TECHNOLOGIES
1st century B.C. Stenography
19th century Morse- and Braille alphabets
50ies of the 20th century compression technologies exploiting statistical redundancy are developed : bit
patterns with varying length are used to represent individual symbols according to their relative frequency
70ies dictionary algorithms are developed: symbol sequences are mapped to shorter indices using
dictionaries
70ies with the ongoing digitization of telephone lines telecommunication companies got interested in
procedures how to get more channels on a single wire.
early 80ies fax transmission over analog telephone lines.
80ies first applications involving digital images appear on the market, the digital revolution starts with
compressing audio data
90ies video broadcasting, video on demand, etc.
Important criteria for choosing compression scheme
data dimensionality
lossy or lossless compression
quality
algorithm complexity, speed, delay
hardware or software solution
encoder / decoder symmetry
error robustness and error resilience
scalability
progressive transmission
standard required
multiple encoding / decoding
adaptivity
synchronisation issues
transcoding