Patent ID: 7668894

Claim:
A method for processing a media signal to transform said media signal on a computer system, comprising the steps of: using a Chebyshev minimax approximation technique to determine, in a processing unit of the computer system, a plurality of polynomials which approximate a mathematical function over a plurality of corresponding data intervals, wherein the length of each interval is individually defined so that the approximation of the function over that interval by its corresponding polynomial has an error less than a predetermined threshold for all of the intervals, storing the coefficients that define each polynomial in a memory unit of the computer system, in response to receipt of said media signal, determining, in the processing unit, the interval in which a data value representative of said media signal is located, and retrieving the stored coefficients for the polynomial corresponding to that interval; evaluating, in the processing unit, the polynomial for the determined interval with said media signal and the retrieved coefficients to thereby transform said media signal; and outputting said transformed media signal to reproduce said transformed media signal as an output from the computer system, wherein said polynomials and intervals are determined such that the maximum error between said output values and said function is approximately equal for each of said intervals.