Customer Reviews

Introduction to Information Theory and Data Compression

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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The authors of this well balanced textbook succeed admirably well in teaching the subject to the union of students in math and in cs, and to engineers. The danger with subjects that cut accross fields is that they might appeal to the intersection of audiences involved rather than to the much larger union. The authors seem to be at home with all the types of readers, they realize that the lingo and the aim is different for the different and diverse groups of students. Indeed, the tools of information theory, data compression, and arithmetic coding are widely used in science. While the mathematical parts of the subject is old[Shannon, Kolmogorov..., measurements of information, entropy, channel capacity], the applications are still going strong, with new things coming out at a fast rate right up to the present. So the emphasis in the book on data and image compression is very appropriate. There is even a JPEGtool user's guide in the appendix.

I am a gradute student in computer science and I have read a lot of books on this subject, including 1- Digital Image Compression, by Weidong Kou, 2- The Data Compression Book, by Mark Nelson, 3- JPEG Still Image Data Compression Standard, by Pennebaker. I have also browsed few other books on this subject, but one thing I can say for sure, that this is the best book ever written on the subject of Compression. It explains the information theory and data Compression in the best possible way, with best examples. Once read, you will never forget the algorithms. I just love this book, and read it every once in a while.

This book breaks ground even now in the 21st Century!

There's not a day that goes by - and I mean this literally -
that I do not use this book to break ground - and I mean that figuratively.
Wait - no, I mean that literally, too, come to think about it, if one
considers the as-yet-untilled fertile loam of consciousness the ground
through which this slender tome "turns the soil..." When seedling theory
raises a tentative monocotyledon into the light of possibility, it quickly
wellsprings into that cornucopia however you spell it of brilliant
whatchamacallit - information theory or simply the plain old everyday
garden variety GENIUS that we have come to expect of Peter D. Johnson,
boy inventor.

More, Professor Johnson, MORE!!!

I read a lot of books on Compression, but this is indeed the best one I ever bought. I love this book and read it frequently.