A system for quantizing and dequantizing a real-valued signal including quantizing apparatus comprising
- an input connection for receiving a real-valued input signal;
- threshold storage means for storing a table of threshold values and for producing a threshold value signal therefrom representing a selected one of said threshold values;
- comparator means coupled to said input connection and to said threshold storage means for producing at an output connection an output bit of one binary value when the real-valued input signal at the input connection is greater than the selected one of said threshold values and for producing at the output connection an output bit of the other binary value when the real-valued input signal at the input connection is less than the selected one of said threshold values;
- first register means coupled to the output connection and to the threshold storage means for storing output bits from the comparator means;
- said threshold storage means being operable to produce a threshold value signal representing a selected one of said threshold values as determined by the contents of said first register means;
- means for causing said threshold storage means to produce an initial threshold value signal representing a zero value;
- said comparator means being operable in response to the initial threshold value signal and to the real-valued input signal to produce a first output bit at the output connection;
- said register means being operable to store said first output bit;
- said threshold storage means, said comparator means, and said first register means operating to repeat the operating cycle of the threshold storage means producing a threshold value signal determined by the contents of the first register means, the comparator means producing an output bit at the output connection, and the first register means storing the output bit to add to the contents thereof thereby to provide a binary quantized representation of the real-valued input signal with increasing precision for each repetition of the operating cycle;
- and including dequantizing apparatus comprising
- an input connection for receiving the output bits produced at the output connection of the comparator means of said quantizing apparatus in order as they are produced;
- reconstruction storage means for storing a table of reconstructed values of real-valued signals and for producing at an output connection a reconstructed value signal therefrom representing a selected one of said reconstructed values;
- second register means coupled to the input connection and to the reconstruction storage means for storing the output bits as they are received;
- and
- said reconstruction storage means being operable to produce a reconstructed value at the output connection thereof as determined by the contents of said second register means so that a reconstructed approximation of the real-valued input signal at the input connection of the quantizing apparatus is produced which increases in precision with each output bit received.