Wavelet Image and Video Compression

The technology of wavelet image compression has deep roots in theories of vision, and promises performance improvements over all other compression methods, such as those based on Fourier transforms, vectors quantizers, fractals, neural nets, and many others. It is this technology that is presented in this text in an accessible form. This text is divided into four parts. Part 1, Background Material, introduces the basic mathematical structures that underly image compression algorithms with the intention of providing an easy introduction to the mathematical concepts that are prerequisites for the remainder of the book. It explains such topics as change of bases, scalar and vector quantization, bit allocation and rate-distortion theory, entropy coding, the discrete-cosine transform, wavelet filters and other related topics. Part II, Still Image Coding, presents a spectrum of wavelet still image coding schemes with a special flavor in either approach or application domain. Part IV, Video Coding, examines wavelet and pyramidal coding techniques for video data.