Information and Entropy

Unit 3: Compression

Readings

• Notes, Chapter 3: Compression (PDF)
• Shutter Telegraph Codewords
• Graphics Interchange Format (GIF87) Specification (complete, p. 9)
• GIF Patent Controversy
  • Two Unisys statements: License Information
• Six-page excerpt from JPEG FAQ
• MP3 overview from Fraunhofer Institute, p. 3.

Assignments

• Problem Set 2 (PDF)
• Problem Set 2 Solutions (PDF)

Resources

Technical

• Flag of Germany, the perfect example for run-length encoding
• JPEG FAQ part 1 and JPEG FAQ part 2
• Blackstock, Steve. “LZW and GIF explained.” From Amer, Paul. CISC 451/651: Data Compression in Multimedia.
• Nelson, Mark. “LZW Data Compression.” Dr. Dobb’s Journal 14 (October 1989): 29-36.
• PNG, an alternative to GIF

Historical

• Wilson, Geoffrey. The Old Telegraphs. London, UK: Phillimore and Co., 1976. ISBN: 9780900592799.  
  Describes several telegraph systems, in many countries, that predate electrical telegraphs.
• Holzmann, Gerard J., and Björn Pehrson. The Early History of Data Networks. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons, 1994. ISBN: 9780818667824.
• ———. “The First Data Networks.” Scientific American 270 (January 1994): 124-129.  
  Describes French and Swedish optical telegraphs, from the 1790s.
• Standage, Tom. The Victorian Internet. New York, NY: Berkley Books, 1999, chapter 1. ISBN: 9780425171691.
• Unisys/Compuserve GIF Controversy
  • Unisys statements: License info
  • Battilana, Michael C. “The GIF Controversy: A Software Developer’s Perspective.” January 27, 1995.  
    Historical summary, relatively dispassionate.