Information theory and inference, often taught separately, are here united in one entertaining textbook. These topics lie at the heart of many exciting areas of contemporary science and engineering - communication, signal processing, data mining, machine learning, pattern recognition, computational neuroscience, bioinformatics, and cryptography. This textbook introduces theory in tandem with applications. Information theory is taught alongside practical communication systems, such as arithmetic coding for data compression and sparse-graph codes for error-correction. A toolbox of inference techniques, including message-passing algorithms, Monte Carlo methods, and variational approximations, are developed alongside applications of these tools to clustering, convolutional codes, independent component analysis, and neural networks. The final part of the book describes the state of the art in error-correcting codes, including low-density parity-check codes, turbo codes, and digital fountain codes -- the twenty-first century standards for satellite communications, disk drives, and data broadcast. Richly illustrated, filled with worked examples and over 400 exercises, some with detailed solutions, David MacKay's groundbreaking book is ideal for self-learning and for undergraduate or graduate courses. Interludes on crosswords, evolution, and sex provide entertainment along the way. In sum, this is a textbook on information, communication, and coding for a new generation of students, and an unparalleled entry point into these subjects for professionals in areas as diverse as computational biology, financial engineering, and machine learning.
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Review
"...a valuable reference...enjoyable and highly useful."
American Scientist
"...an impressive book, intended as a class text on the subject of the title but having the character and robustness of a focused encyclopedia. The presentation is finely detailed, well documented, and stocked with artistic flourishes."
Mathematical Reviews
"Essential reading for students of electrical engineering and computer science; also a great heads-up for mathematics students concerning the subtlety of many commonsense questions."
Choice
"An utterly original book that shows the connections between such disparate fields as information theory and coding, inference, and statistical physics."
Dave Forney, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
"This is an extraordinary and important book, generous with insight and rich with detail in statistics, information theory, and probabilistic modeling across a wide swathe of standard, creatively original, and delightfully quirky topics. David MacKay is an uncompromisingly lucid thinker, from whom students, faculty and practitioners all can learn."
Peter Dayan and Zoubin Ghahramani, Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit, University College, London
"An instant classic, covering everything from Shannon's fundamental theorems to the postmodern theory of LDPC codes. You'll want two copies of this astonishing book, one for the office and one for the fireside at home."
Bob McEliece, California Institute of Technology
"An excellent textbook in the areas of infomation theory, Bayesian inference and learning alorithms. Undergraduate and post-graduate students will find it extremely useful for gaining insight into these topics."
REDNOVA
"Most of the theories are accompanied by motivations, and explanations with the corresponding examples...the book achieves its goal of being a good textbook on information theory."
ACM SIGACT News
American Scientist
"...an impressive book, intended as a class text on the subject of the title but having the character and robustness of a focused encyclopedia. The presentation is finely detailed, well documented, and stocked with artistic flourishes."
Mathematical Reviews
"Essential reading for students of electrical engineering and computer science; also a great heads-up for mathematics students concerning the subtlety of many commonsense questions."
Choice
"An utterly original book that shows the connections between such disparate fields as information theory and coding, inference, and statistical physics."
Dave Forney, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
"This is an extraordinary and important book, generous with insight and rich with detail in statistics, information theory, and probabilistic modeling across a wide swathe of standard, creatively original, and delightfully quirky topics. David MacKay is an uncompromisingly lucid thinker, from whom students, faculty and practitioners all can learn."
Peter Dayan and Zoubin Ghahramani, Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit, University College, London
"An instant classic, covering everything from Shannon's fundamental theorems to the postmodern theory of LDPC codes. You'll want two copies of this astonishing book, one for the office and one for the fireside at home."
Bob McEliece, California Institute of Technology
"An excellent textbook in the areas of infomation theory, Bayesian inference and learning alorithms. Undergraduate and post-graduate students will find it extremely useful for gaining insight into these topics."
REDNOVA
"Most of the theories are accompanied by motivations, and explanations with the corresponding examples...the book achieves its goal of being a good textbook on information theory."
ACM SIGACT News
Book Description
Information theory and inference, often taught separately, are here united in one entertaining textbook. These topics lie at the heart of many exciting areas of contemporary science and engineering - communication, signal processing, data mining, machine learning, pattern recognition, computational neuroscience, bioinformatics, and cryptography. This textbook introduces theory in tandem with applications. Information theory is taught alongside practical communication systems, such as arithmetic coding for data compression and sparse-graph codes for error-correction. A toolbox of inference techniques, including message-passing algorithms, Monte Carlo methods, and variational approximations, are developed alongside applications of these tools to clustering, convolutional codes, independent component analysis, and neural networks. The final part of the book describes the state of the art in error-correcting codes, including low-density parity-check codes, turbo codes, and digital fountain codes -- the twenty-first century standards for satellite communications, disk drives, and data broadcast. Richly illustrated, filled with worked examples and over 400 exercises, some with detailed solutions, David MacKay's groundbreaking book is ideal for self-learning and for undergraduate or graduate courses. Interludes on crosswords, evolution, and sex provide entertainment along the way. In sum, this is a textbook on information, communication, and coding for a new generation of students, and an unparalleled entry point into these subjects for professionals in areas as diverse as computational biology, financial engineering, and machine learning.
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In this chapter we discuss how to measure the information content of the outcome of a random experiment. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
In this chapter we discuss how to measure the information content of the outcome of a random experiment. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By David MacKay
Format:Hardcover
Fantastically good value, this wide-ranging textbook covers elementary information theory, data compression, and coding theory; machine learning, Bayesian inference, Monte Carlo methods; and state of the art error-correcting coding methods, including low-density parity-check codes, turbo codes, and digital fountain codes. Theory and practical examples are covered side by side. Hundreds of exercises are included, many with worked solutions.
Three things are distinctive about this book.
First, it emphasizes the connections between information theory and machine learning - for example data compression and Bayesian data modelling are two sides of the same coin.
Second, since 1993, there's been a revolution in communication theory, with classical algebraic codes being superceded by sparse graph codes; this text covers these recent developments in detail.
Third, the whole book is available for free online viewing at
www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/mackay/itila/.
I use this book in all my teaching! :-)
By David MacKay
Format:Hardcover
Fantastically good value, this wide-ranging textbook covers elementary information theory, data compression, and coding theory; machine learning, Bayesian inference, Monte Carlo methods; and state of the art error-correcting coding methods, including low-density parity-check codes, turbo codes, and digital fountain codes. Theory and practical examples are covered side by side. Hundreds of exercises are included, many with worked solutions.
Two things are distinctive about this book.
First, it emphasizes the connections between information theory and machine learning - for example data compression and Bayesian data modelling are two sides of the same coin.
Second, since 1993, there's been a revolution in communication theory, with classical algebraic codes being superceded by sparse graph codes; this text covers these recent developments in detail.
I recommend this book to all my students! :-)
By A Customer
Format:Hardcover
This review concerns only the coding theory part.
If you want to know what's presently going on in the field of coding theory with solid technical foundation, this is the book. The importance of this book is it answers why people have been going into new directions into coding theory and provides good information about LDPC codes, turbo codes and decoding algorithms. People have solved some problems that arise in coding field without going into depths of mathematics. Till early 1990's research in coding was intensely mathematical. People thought the packing problem was the answer to the coding problem. However Mackay answers the conventional thought was wrong when one tries to attain shannon limit. He gives an argument based on GV bound (warning: This argument may not be entirely true).
Now the bad part of the book. Mackay bases his entire book on the basis that algebraic codes cannot exceed GV bound. This is wrong. If you look at Madhu Sudan's notes at MIT (The prestigious Nevenlinna award winner), he says random codes are not always the best. Specifically he cites an argument which states AG codes exceed GV bound at a faster pace. So packing problem still has a relevance to coding problem as it could help attain shannon limit at a faster pace than random codes. (Warning: Madhu does not state anything about size of blocks. But my feeling is that AG codes since they exceed GV bound faster than random codes one could achieve shannon limit with comparitively smaller blocks). So still mathematicians could hope to contribute to practical coding theory while enriching mathematics.
Inspite of this, the book is a must have for engineers and computer scientists.
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