Introduction to Data Compression, 4th Edition

Vector Quantization

10.1 Overview

By grouping source outputs together and encoding them as a single block, we can obtain efficient lossy as well as lossless compression algorithms. Many of the lossless compression algorithms that we looked at took advantage of this fact. We can do the same with quantization. In this chapter, several quantization techniques that operate on blocks of data are described. We can view these blocks as vectors, hence the name “vector quantization.” We will describe several different approaches to vector quantization. We will explore how to design vector quantizers and how these quantizers can be used for compression.

10.2 Introduction

In the last chapter, we looked at different ways of quantizing the output of a source. ...