A simple perusal of the table of contents proves that the reader is in for a real tour of the field of multimedia compression, for both 2D and 3D images. The significance of this work is that the transmission of large file streams of still images (2D) and video/movies (3D) will not be hindered by the storage requirements of the underlying data files. Furthermore, by transmitting highly compressed files and decompressing them on the receiving side, the consumer will achieve much faster throughput because the compressed files inherently have much less stored data points than the original files. Of course, to achieve such compressions, an application may need to rely on lossy compression, which as opposed to its lossless counterpart can change or lose some of the original values. However, research has consistently shown that the level of detail provided by lossy compression schemes is more than sufficient for the consumer, and the details changed (or lost) are not noticeable.

While the authors are aiming to target “students” with their text, it is important to note that this term is meant generically to include anyone interested in the field, from an undergraduate to a graduate (or even a postgraduate), from someone in academia to a researcher in the field. This requires a delicate balance between the theoretical and the practical, from the introductory level to the advanced. Reading the text, the reader will see that the authors have been able to walk this delicate tightrope. They accomplish this by including summaries, questions for thought, meaningful illustrations, chapter bibliographies for further reading, and perhaps most importantly, the inclusion of actual MATLAB code for practical implementation.

There are eight chapters in this book. Chapter 1 introduces the notion of data compression and differentiates between lossy and lossless compressions. Chapter 2 then delves into classic approaches and fundamental concepts for lossless compression (where the original exact data can be retrieved.) Chapter 3 is a wonderful chapter on image transforms and signal processing, concentrating on the representation and storage of images. This forms the basis for chapter 4, which deals with image compression from a wavelet perspective, forming the foundation of the JPEG 2000 image compression standard, considered by many as an industry standard. Chapter 5 provides an alternative approach by vector quantization methods, concluding with an advanced quantization application based on neural networks. Chapter 6 moves on to three dimensions, presenting statistical and spatial approaches for video compression. This chapter concludes with the various MPEG video compression standards. Chapter 7 assesses image quality from statistical, spectral, and entropy-based perspectives. Perhaps the most mathematical chapter is the last chapter (8) on compressed sensing. The idea is to reduce the dimensionality of a signal in a linear manner while receiving it in order to retain the most important part of the signal. Their final application of this to watermarking is a fascinating extension of the theoretical concepts.

The authors should be congratulated for this comprehensive yet accessible text.