Least squares quantization in PCM

TitleLeast squares quantization in PCM
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication1982
AuthorsStuart P. Lloyd
JournalInformation Theory, IEEE Transactions on
Volume28
Pagination129–137
Keywordsclustering, k-means
Abstract

It has long been realized that in pulse-code modulation (PCM), with a given ensemble of signals to handle, the quantum values should be spaced more closely in the voltage regions where the signal amplitude is more likely to fall. It has been shown by Panter and Dite that, in the limit as the number of quanta becomes infinite, the asymptotic fractional density of quanta per unit voltage should vary as the one-third power of the probability density per unit voltage of signal amplitudes. In this paper the corresponding result for any finite number of quanta is derived; that is, necessary conditions are found that the quanta and associated quantization intervals of an optimum finite quantization scheme must satisfy. The optimization criterion used is that the average quantization noise power be a minimum. It is shown that the result obtained here goes over into the Panter and Dite result as the number of quanta become large. The optimum quantization schemes for $ 2^b $ quanta, $ b=1,2,\cdots, 7 $, are given numerically for Gaussian and for Laplacian distribution of signal amplitudes.