Object based wavelet compression using coefficient selection

Abstract

In this paper, we present a novel approach to code image regions of arbitrary shapes. The proposed algorithm combines a coefficient selection scheme with traditional wavelet compression for coding arbitrary regions and uses a shape adaptive embedded zerotree wavelet coding (SA-EZW) to quantize the selected coefficients. Since the shape information is implicitly encoded by the SA-EZW, our decoder can reconstruct the arbitrary region without separate shape coding. This makes the algorithm simple to implement and avoids the problem of contour coding. Our algorithm also provides a sufficient framework to address content-based scalability and improved coding efficiency as described by MPEG-4.