Kvantifitseerimis

Kvantifitseerimis, often translated as quantization, is a process in signal processing and data compression where a continuous range of values is mapped to a smaller, finite set of discrete values. This is a fundamental step in converting analog signals into digital form, as digital systems can only represent a finite number of states.

The core idea of quantization involves dividing the entire range of possible signal values into a number of intervals, called quantization levels. Each interval is then represented by a single discrete value, often the midpoint of the interval. When a signal value falls within a particular interval, it is rounded or mapped to the corresponding discrete value.

The number of quantization levels directly impacts the accuracy of the representation. A higher number of levels leads to a finer resolution and a more faithful representation of the original signal, but requires more bits to store each quantized value. Conversely, fewer levels result in coarser representation and potentially significant loss of information, but allow for greater compression.

Quantization introduces a form of error known as quantization error or quantization noise. This error arises because the discrete quantized values are approximations of the original continuous values. The magnitude of this error depends on the size of the quantization intervals. Techniques like non-uniform quantization are used in some applications to minimize quantization error in specific ranges of interest. Quantization is a crucial component in analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) and is widely used in audio, image, and video compression standards.