Lossless Compression of Volume Data

Data in volume form consumes an extraordinary amount of storage space. For efficient storage and transmission of such data, compression algorithms are imperative. However, most volumetric datasets are used in biomedicine and other scientific applications where lossy compression is unacceptable. We present a lossless data-compression algorithm which, being oriented specifically for volume data, achieves greater compression performance than generic compression algorithms that are typically available on modern computer systems. Our algorithm is a combination of differential pulse-code modulation (DPCM) and Huffman coding and results in compression of around 50% for a set of volume data files. I. Introduction Compression for efficient storage and transmission of digital data has become routine as the application of such data has grown. Several common datacompression programs are readily available on many computers to fight the burgeoning demand for storage space. These programs are typica..