A concise introduction to data compression. (Q2479301)

This book on data compression, being one of the main areas of computer science, can be considered an introductory one into a part of coding theory. The author tries to describe the main techniques which are used in the treated subject. The entire work is done gradually, like in a laboratory schedule, and can be used by students who want to understand a general description of data compression and some of the important themes in this domain. In order to get a good understanding of the subject, for a reader, it is also necessary to have a mathematical background to deal with the present work as it is: a guide to software implementations for undergraduate students. The book has seven chapters which include the main ideas of basic techniques, like Huffman coding, arithmetic coding and dictionary methods, also modern approaches used in image and audio compression. In each part exercises are provided, and solutions for them can be found at the end of the book. The bibliography contains a good deal of the main titles in coding theory and refers also to current research results in the described domain. Overall, the book can be considered to belong to the applications area and is particularly suitable for undergraduate students to be used for laboratory purposes.