Fourier Transforms

and Their Use in

Data Compression

By Joseph Gehring
What is a Fourier Transform?
From Simple Wikipedia:
AFourier transformis a math
functionthat makes a sometimes
less useful function into another
more useful function.
A Fourier transform really just
shows you what frequencies are
in a signal.
 The Math
The Fourier Transform is a
generalization of the Fourier Series
Any periodic function can be
represented as an infinite sum of
sines and cosines
Fourier Series
 Fourier Transform
Forward

Inverse

Symmetric Linear Transform

a=0, b=-2*pi for signal processing
 Fourier Transform
Every function f(x) has a forward and
inverse Fourier Transform such that

Given:
Integral of f(x) exists
Discontinuous at a finite number of
points
Function has a bounded variation
 Discrete Fourier Transform
For given input data:
Reveals periodic elements
Shows the relative strength of those
periodic elements
Input sequence of real numbers
results in Fourier Transform output of
complex numbers
Efficiently computed using Fast
Fourier Transform
 Some Clarification
Fourier Series uses an infinite sum of sines
and cosines
Fourier Transform uses an integral over an
infinite range to develop an approximation
Discrete Fourier Transform uses a finite
sum of sines and cosines over a given
range, based on sampling rates and
sample length
In music, the sample rate is usually set to
44,100 samples/second based on CD quality
Approximating a Square
Wave
 Fast Fourier Transform
Efficient algorithm reducing the number of
computations required to determine the
discrete Fourier Transform of a function
from O(n^2) to O(n*log2(n))
Has been used in mp3 and JPG
compression
Ultimately, even the FFT could not
compete with the Discrete Cosine
Transform, which is the cosine portion of
the Fourier Transform, and uses only real
values
 Compression
The compression ratio offered by use
of the Fourier Transform is dependent
on the quality required by the
application
The higher quality the result needs to
be, the lower the compression ratio
will be
To create a more accurate output,
more coefficients are needed and the
data cannot be compressed as
 MP3
Input file is sampled, usually at 44.1 kHz, and
the file is split into chunks of 576 samples
each (~.013 seconds)
FFT or DCT is performed to convert time
domain to frequency domain
Frequencies outside range of human hearing
are removed
Coefficient data is stored in conjunction with a
32-bit header containing sound quality (frame)
Multiple frames are combined to make a single
mp3 file
http://www.indiana.edu/~acoustic/s522/fourapdkp.html
 JPG
The original image is broken
up into 64 pixel blocks, each
8x8 pixels.

The DCT is taken of each 8x8

group using a set of 64 basis
functions. Each numerical
value in the group is
replaced with a new, smaller
number representing a
coefficient for a basis
function.

Because these numbers are

smaller, the number of bits
required to represent them
can be reduced. So, each
value in the group is
truncated to a lower number
of bits.
 JPG (contd)
In this image, we see how many
coefficients are required to achieve
an approximation of the original
image. Using 15 coefficients for the
Fourier Transform instead of 64
original values, a good
approximation
can be made
of the initial
image
 JPG (Contd)
The last step of JPG compression
involves the use of Huffman
Encoding, which is a form of variable
bit length encoding that uses fewer
bits to represent values that occur
more frequently than those that
occur more rarely.
The 64 encoded values are then
converted to a linear sequence of
values rather than an array
 In Conclusion
All these methods have undergone
periodic updates depending on the
complexity of input data and the
computing power available to
perform the tasks.
As storage space becomes cheaper,
compression ratios can become less
strict to create closer approximations
to original information
This cat has some serious periodic
components.
 Works Cited
Fourier Transform. Simple Wikipedia. Web. 04 April 2011.
http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourier_transform.

Various Articles. Wolfram MathWorld: The Webs Most Extensive Mathematics

Resource. Web. 03 April 2011. http://mathworld.wolfram.com.

MP3. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Web. 04 April 2011.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MP3.

Smith, Steven W. JPEG (Transform Compression). The Scientist and Engineers

Guide to Digital Signal Processing. Web. 04 April 2011. http
://www.dspguide.com/ch27/6.htm .

Yoo, Yerin. Tutorial on Fourier Theory. Department of Computer Science.

University of Otago. Web. 05 April 2011. http
://www.cs.otago.ac.nz/cosc453/student_tutorials/fourier_analysis.pdf

Handley, Mark. 3: Fourier Transforms. Department of Computer Science.

Columbia University. Web. 05 April 2011. http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~
hgs/teaching/ais/slides/03-fourier.pdf

Munroe, Randall. Fourier. xkcd. Web. 05 April 2011. http://xkcd.com/26.