The document discusses different types of data compression techniques. It explains that compression reduces the size of data to reduce bandwidth and storage requirements when transmitting or storing audio, video, and images. It describes how compression works by exploiting redundancies in the data as well as properties of human perception. Various compression methods are outlined, including lossless techniques that preserve all information as well as lossy methods for audio and video that can tolerate some loss of information. Specific algorithms discussed include Huffman coding, run-length coding, LZW coding, and arithmetic coding. The document also provides details on JPEG image compression and MPEG video compression standards.