The spreading of digital technology has resulted in a dramatic increase in the demand for data compression (DC) methods. At the same time, the appearance of highly integrated elements has made more and more com plicated algorithms feasible. It is in the fields of speech and image trans mission and the transmission and storage of biological signals (e.g., ECG, Body Surface Mapping) where the demand for DC algorithms is greatest. There is, however, a substantial gap between the theory and the practice of DC: an essentially nonconstructive information theoretical attitude and the attractive...