No label defined (Q2707923)

This paper is a Swedish translation by P. Lindqvist of a lecture given by J. van Lint in Trondheim, Norway in February 2000. The main point is to describe in an elementary manner the basic mathematical ideas behind the error-correcting schemes applied in the Compact Disc (CD) in order to achieve its excellent musical quality. The presentation is intended for an audience without any background in coding theory. In the first few sections, definitions and examples of error-correcting codes are given, and in particular the Hamming code is described by an example. Use of error-correcting codes are illustrated by an analogous system to encode a printed book in order to correct misprints using simple mathematics. Further, a flavor of Reed-Solomon codes are presented, as well as the main ideas of the use of two cooperating Reed-Solomon codes playing an important role in the error correcting. This article is a very readable and nice overview of how the mathematical ideas of coding theory played a very important role in achieving the superb music quality of the CD.