Data compression
In computer science and information theory, data compression or source coding is the process of encoding information using fewer bits (or other information-bearing units) than an un-encoded representation would use through use of specific encoding schemes. For example, this article could be encoded with fewer bits if one were to accept the convention that the word "compression" be encoded as "comp". One popular instance of compression that many computer users are familiar with is the ZIP file format, which, as well as providing compression, acts as an archiver, storing many files in a single output file.
Compression is useful because it helps reduce the consumption of expensive resources, such as disk space or transmission bandwidth. On the downside, compressed data must be uncompressed to be viewed (or heard), and this extra processing may be detrimental to some applications. For instance, a compression scheme for video may require expensive hardware for the video to be decompressed fast enough to be viewed as it's being decompressed (you always have the option of decompressing the video in full before you watch it, but this is inconvenient and requires storage space to put the uncompressed video). The design of data compression schemes therefore involve trade-offs between various factors, including the degree of compression, the amount of distortion introduced (if using a lossy compression scheme), and the computational resources required to compress and uncompress the data.
Applications
One very simple means of compression is run-length encoding, wherein large runs of consecutive identical data values are replaced by a simple code with the data value and length of the run. This is an example of lossless data compression. It is often used to better use disk space on office computers, or better use the connection bandwidth in a computer network. For symbolic data such as spreadsheets, text, executable programs, etc., losslessness is essential because changing even a single bit cannot be tolerated (except in some limited cases).
For visual and audio data, some loss of quality can be tolerated without losing the essential nature of the data. By taking advantage of the limitations of the human sensory system, a great deal of space can be saved while producing an output which is nearly indistinguishable from the original. These lossy data compression methods typically offer a three-way tradeoff between compression speed, compressed data size and quality loss.
Lossy image compression is used in digital cameras, greatly increasing their storage capacities while hardly degrading picture quality at all. Similarly, DVDs use the lossy MPEG-2 codec for video compression.
In lossy audio compression, methods of psychoacoustics are used to remove non-audible (or less audible) components of the signal. Compression of human speech is often performed with even more specialized techniques, so that "speech compression" or "voice coding" is sometimes distinguished as a separate discipline than "audio compression". Different audio and speech compression standards are listed under audio codecs. Voice compression is used in Internet telephony for example, while audio compression is used for CD ripping and is decoded by MP3 players. READ about the Theory>>>>
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