A mixed-framework arithmetic coder

A mixed-framework adaptive arithmetic coding technique is introduced in which the probability estimation process dynamically switches among a set of allowed models; the sequence of model choices is determined jointly with the relative data segmen-tation to yield the optimal coding performance for the given set of predictors. A speciic application is detailed in which the arithmetic coder can switch between the backward adaptive estimator of the Q-Coder and a forward adaptive bit count scheme.