interactive multimedia association (IMA)

Interactive Multimedia Association(IMA) is a US association for interactive mutlimedial applications.

The IMA Association has developed an algorithm that is used in adaptive delta pulse code modulation( ADPCM), among other applications. It is characterized by its simplicity and high compression ratio. In the IMA method, the number of quantization stages is controlled by a prediction mechanism. The previous sample value is used as the prediction value. The number of quantization bits is stored and compared with the previous quantization levels. The difference is the quantization level for the next sample.