Transform Coding
Transform coding is a data compression technique that converts input data into a different domain (like frequency or wavelet) where it can be represented more efficiently, often by discarding less important coefficients. It is widely used in lossy compression algorithms for multimedia, such as images, audio, and video, to reduce file sizes while maintaining perceptual quality. Common transforms include the Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) in JPEG and MPEG standards, and wavelet transforms in JPEG 2000 and MPEG-4.
Developers should learn transform coding when working on multimedia applications, compression algorithms, or signal processing systems where efficient data representation is critical. It is essential for implementing or optimizing codecs like JPEG, MPEG, or audio formats (e.g., MP3), as it enables high compression ratios by exploiting redundancies in the transformed domain. Knowledge of transform coding is also valuable in fields like computer vision, telecommunications, and data storage to handle large datasets effectively.