Brain Teaser Challenge - "May"

I just got back from the international science and engineering fair in Reno a couple of weeks ago. What an amazing event! This was my third one in a row and it never fails to impress me. The really impressive part is not that the projects are so technically advanced, though many are, it is that these 1500 kids from all over the globe are so uniformly wonderful. Great looking kids, very polite, articulate, most of whom for which English is not the first language, it is amazing. In my opinion there is no other event that so clearly demonstrates that there is great hope for the human race. And even though every one is a fierce competitor, they consistently look after each other and help each other when they can.

I helped to escort ten kids from my community to the fair. As you can imagine I took a lot of pictures and HD video. Most images and video stored and reproduced digitally, such as JPEG and MPEG, use a lossy type of data compression. This is accomplished through a mathematical transform that converts the image information into coefficients of sinusoids at various frequencies. Can you name this mathematical transform?


Reply to Butch Shadwell at b.shadwell@ieee.org (email), 904-410-9751 (fax), 904-410-9750 (v), 3308 Queen Palm Dr., Jacksonville, FL 32250-2328. (http://www.shadtechserv.com) The names of correct respondents may be mentioned in the solution column.