A VLSI architecture of JPEG2000 encoder

Copyright @ 2004 IEEEThis paper proposes a VLSI architecture of JPEG2000 encoder, which functionally consists of two parts: discrete wavelet transform (DWT) and embedded block coding with optimized truncation (EBCOT). For DWT, a spatial combinative lifting algorithm (SCLA)-based scheme with both 5/3 reversible and 9/7 irreversible filters is adopted to reduce 50% and 42% multiplication computations, respectively, compared with the conventional lifting-based implementation (LBI). For EBCOT, a dynamic memory control (DMC) strategy of Tier-1 encoding is adopted to reduce 60% scale of the on-chip wavelet coefficient storage and a subband parallel-processing method is employed to speed up the EBCOT context formation (CF) process; an architecture of Tier-2 encoding is presented to reduce the scale of on-chip bitstream buffering from full-tile size down to three-code-block size and considerably eliminate the iterations of the rate-distortion (RD) truncation.This work was supported in part by the China National High Technologies Research Program (863) under Grant 2002AA1Z142

Rate scalable image compression in the wavelet domain

This thesis explores image compression in the wavelet transform domain. This the- sis considers progressive compression based on bit plane coding. The rst part of the thesis investigates the scalar quantisation technique for multidimensional images such as colour and multispectral image. Embedded coders such as SPIHT and SPECK are known to be very simple and e cient algorithms for compression in the wavelet do- main. However, these algorithms require the use of lists to keep track of partitioning processes, and such lists involve high memory requirement during the encoding process. A listless approach has been proposed for multispectral image compression in order to reduce the working memory required. The earlier listless coders are extended into three dimensional coder so that redundancy in the spectral domain can be exploited. Listless implementation requires a xed memory of 4 bits per pixel to represent the state of each transformed coe cient. The state is updated during coding based on test of sig- ni cance. Spectral redundancies are exploited to improve the performance of the coder by modifying its scanning rules and the initial marker/state. For colour images, this is done by conducting a joint the signi cant test for the chrominance planes. In this way, the similarities between the chrominance planes can be exploited during the cod- ing process. Fixed memory listless methods that exploit spectral redundancies enable e cient coding while maintaining rate scalability and progressive transmission. The second part of the thesis addresses image compression using directional filters in the wavelet domain. A directional lter is expected to improve the retention of edge and curve information during compression. Current implementations of hybrid wavelet and directional (HWD) lters improve the contour representation of compressed images, but su er from the pseudo-Gibbs phenomenon in the smooth regions of the images. A di erent approach to directional lters in the wavelet transforms is proposed to remove such artifacts while maintaining the ability to preserve contours and texture. Imple- mentation with grayscale images shows improvements in terms of distortion rates and the structural similarity, especially in images with contours. The proposed transform manages to preserve the directional capability without pseudo-Gibbs artifacts and at the same time reduces the complexity of wavelet transform with directional lter. Fur-ther investigation to colour images shows the transform able to preserve texture and curve.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Fast watermarking of MPEG-1/2 streams using compressed-domain perceptual embedding and a generalized correlator detector

A novel technique is proposed for watermarking of MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 compressed video streams. The proposed scheme is applied directly in the domain of MPEG-1 system streams and MPEG-2 program streams (multiplexed streams). Perceptual models are used during the embedding process in order to avoid degradation of the video quality. The watermark is detected without the use of the original video sequence. A modified correlation-based detector is introduced that applies nonlinear preprocessing before correlation. Experimental evaluation demonstrates that the proposed scheme is able to withstand several common attacks. The resulting watermarking system is very fast and therefore suitable for copyright protection of compressed video

Color image quality measures and retrieval

The focus of this dissertation is mainly on color image, especially on the images with lossy compression. Issues related to color quantization, color correction, color image retrieval and color image quality evaluation are addressed. A no-reference color image quality index is proposed. A novel color correction method applied to low bit-rate JPEG image is developed. A novel method for content-based image retrieval based upon combined feature vectors of shape, texture, and color similarities has been suggested. In addition, an image specific color reduction method has been introduced, which allows a 24-bit JPEG image to be shown in the 8-bit color monitor with 256-color display. The reduction in download and decode time mainly comes from the smart encoder incorporating with the proposed color reduction method after color space conversion stage. To summarize, the methods that have been developed can be divided into two categories: one is visual representation, and the other is image quality measure. Three algorithms are designed for visual representation: (1) An image-based visual representation for color correction on low bit-rate JPEG images. Previous studies on color correction are mainly on color image calibration among devices. Little attention was paid to the compressed image whose color distortion is evident in low bit-rate JPEG images. In this dissertation, a lookup table algorithm is designed based on the loss of PSNR in different compression ratio. (2) A feature-based representation for content-based image retrieval. It is a concatenated vector of color, shape, and texture features from region of interest (ROI). (3) An image-specific 256 colors (8 bits) reproduction for color reduction from 16 millions colors (24 bits). By inserting the proposed color reduction method into a JPEG encoder, the image size could be further reduced and the transmission time is also reduced. This smart encoder enables its decoder using less time in decoding. Three algorithms are designed for image quality measure (IQM): (1) A referenced IQM based upon image representation in very low-dimension. Previous studies on IQMs are based on high-dimensional domain including spatial and frequency domains. In this dissertation, a low-dimensional domain IQM based on random projection is designed, with preservation of the IQM accuracy in high-dimensional domain. (2) A no-reference image blurring metric. Based on the edge gradient, the degree of image blur can be measured. (3) A no-reference color IQM based upon colorfulness, contrast and sharpness

Coarse-to-fine textures retrieval in the JPEG 2000 compressed domain for fast browsing of large image databases

In many applications, the amount and resolution of digi- tal images have significantly increased over the past few years. For this reason, there is a growing interest for techniques allowing to efficiently browse and seek information inside such huge data spaces. JPEG 2000, the latest compression standard from the JPEG committee, has several interesting features to handle very large images. In this paper, these fea- tures are used in a coarse-to-fine approach to retrieve specific information in a JPEG 2000 code-stream while minimizing the computational load required by such processing. Practically, a cascade of classifiers exploits the bit-depth and resolution scalability features intrinsically present in JPEG 2000 to progressively refine the classification process. Comparison with existing techniques is made in a texture-retrieval task and shows the efficiency of such approach

Biometric Systems

Biometric authentication has been widely used for access control and security systems over the past few years. The purpose of this book is to provide the readers with life cycle of different biometric authentication systems from their design and development to qualification and final application. The major systems discussed in this book include fingerprint identification, face recognition, iris segmentation and classification, signature verification and other miscellaneous systems which describe management policies of biometrics, reliability measures, pressure based typing and signature verification, bio-chemical systems and behavioral characteristics. In summary, this book provides the students and the researchers with different approaches to develop biometric authentication systems and at the same time includes state-of-the-art approaches in their design and development. The approaches have been thoroughly tested on standard databases and in real world applications

Lossless compression of images with specific characteristics

Doutoramento em Engenharia ElectrotécnicaA compressão de certos tipos de imagens é um desafio para algumas normas de compressão de imagem. Esta tese investiga a compressão sem perdas de imagens com características especiais, em particular imagens simples, imagens de cor indexada e imagens de microarrays. Estamos interessados no desenvolvimento de métodos de compressão completos e no estudo de técnicas de pré-processamento que possam ser utilizadas em conjunto com as normas de compressão de imagem. A esparsidade do histograma, uma propriedade das imagens simples, é um dos assuntos abordados nesta tese. Desenvolvemos uma técnica de pré-processamento, denominada compactação de histogramas, que explora esta propriedade e que pode ser usada em conjunto com as normas de compressão de imagem para um melhoramento significativo da eficiência de compressão. A compactação de histogramas e os algoritmos de reordenação podem ser usados como préprocessamento para melhorar a compressão sem perdas de imagens de cor indexada. Esta tese apresenta vários algoritmos e um estudo abrangente dos métodos já existentes. Métodos específicos, como é o caso da decomposição em árvores binárias, são também estudados e propostos. O uso de microarrays em biologia encontra-se em franca expansão. Devido ao elevado volume de dados gerados por experiência, são necessárias técnicas de compressão sem perdas. Nesta tese, exploramos a utilização de normas de compressão sem perdas e apresentamos novos algoritmos para codificar eficientemente este tipo de imagens, baseados em modelos de contexto finito e codificação aritmética.The compression of some types of images is a challenge for some standard compression techniques. This thesis investigates the lossless compression of images with specific characteristics, namely simple images, color-indexed images and microarray images. We are interested in the development of complete compression methods and in the study of preprocessing algorithms that could be used together with standard compression methods. The histogram sparseness, a property of simple images, is addressed in this thesis. We developed a preprocessing technique, denoted histogram packing, that explores this property and can be used with standard compression methods for improving significantly their efficiency. Histogram packing and palette reordering algorithms can be used as a preprocessing step for improving the lossless compression of color-indexed images. This thesis presents several algorithms and a comprehensive study of the already existing methods. Specific compression methods, such as binary tree decomposition, are also addressed. The use of microarray expression data in state-of-the-art biology has been well established and due to the significant volume of data generated per experiment, efficient lossless compression methods are needed. In this thesis, we explore the use of standard image coding techniques and we present new algorithms to efficiently compress this type of images, based on finite-context modeling and arithmetic coding