Lossless data compression with low complexity

Abstract

An adaptive predictor is used to predict samples, and residuals from such predictions are encoded using Golomb-Rice encoding to thereby compress a digital signal which includes the samples. The adaptive predictor adapts to residuals between actual and predicted samples at a particular rate. The rate of adaptation is itself adapted periodically to ensure optimum performance of the compression. A number of samples are repeatedly compressed using different adaptation rates, and the adaptation rate which produces the best compression results is used. The adaptation rate can be an exponential power of 2 such that incrementing the adaptation rate effectively doubles the rate at which the predictor is adapted and decrementing the adaptation rate effectively halves the rate at which the predictor is adapted. Accordingly, fewer trials are needed to find a relatively optimal adaptation rate for the predictor. A code length used in Golomb-Rice, which is typically referred to as the parameter k, is adapted for each sample in a predictable and repeatable manner to further reduce the size of a Golomb-Rice encoding for each sample. An infinite incident response filter of processed residuals automatically reduces influences of previously processed residuals upon such adaptation as additional samples are processed. The efficiency of Golomb-Rice encoding is improved by limiting the predicted samples to an efficient range.