Improving SPIHT-based Compression of Volumetric Medical Data

Volumetric medical data (CT,MR) are useful tools for diagnostic investigation however their usage may be made diffcult because of the amount of data to store or because of the duration of communication over a limited capacity channel. In order to code such information sources we present a progressive three dimensional image compression algorithm based on zerotree wavelet coder with arithmetic coding. We make use of a 3D separable biorthogonal wavelet transform and we extend the zerotree SPIHT algorithm to three dimensions. Moreover we propose some improvements to the SPIHT encoder in order to obtain a better rate distortion performance without increasing the computational complexity. Finally we propose an efficient context-based adaptive arithmetic coding which eliminates high order redundancy. The results obtained on progressive coding of a test CT volume are better than those presented in recent similar works both for the mean PSNR on the whole volume and for the PSNR homogeneity between various slices

A TWO COMPONENT MEDICAL IMAGE COMPRESSION TECHNIQUES FOR DICOM IMAGES

To meet the demand for high speed transmission of image, efficient image storage, remote treatment an efficient image compression technique is essential. Wavelet theory has great potential in medical image compression. Most of the commercial medical image viewers do not provide scalability in image compression. This paper discusses a medical application that contains a viewer for digital imaging and communications in medicine (DICOM) images as a core module. Progressive transmission of medical images through internet has emerged as a promising protocol for teleradiology applications. The major issue that arises in teleradiology is the difficulty of transmitting large volume of medical data with relatively low bandwidth. Recent image compression techniques have increased the viability by reducing the bandwidth requirement and cost-effective delivery of medical images for primary diagnosis. This paper presents an effective algorithm to compress and reconstruct Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) images. DICOM is a standard for handling, storing, printing and transmitting information in medical imaging. These medical images are volumetric consisting of a series of sequences of slices through a given part of the body. DICOM image is first decomposed by Haar Wavelet Decomposition Method. The wavelet coefficients are encoded using Set Partitioning in Hierarchical Trees (SPIHT) algorithm. Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) is performed on the images and the coefficients are JPEG coded. The quality of the compressed image by different method are compared and the method exhibiting highest Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR) is retained for the image. The performance of the compression of medical images using the above said technique is studied with the two component medical image compression techniques

Compression Efficiency for Combining Different Embedded Image Compression Techniques with Huffman Encoding

This thesis presents a technique for image compression which uses the different embedded Wavelet based image coding in combination with Huffman- encoder(for further compression). There are different types of algorithms available for lossy image compression out of which Embedded Zerotree Wavelet(EZW), Set Partitioning in Hierarchical Trees (SPIHT) and Modified SPIHT algorithms are the some of the important compression techniques. EZW algorithm is based on progressive encoding to compress an image into a bit stream with increasing accuracy. The EZW encoder was originally designed to operate on 2D images, but it can also use to other dimensional signals. Progressive encoding is also called as embedded encoding. Main feature of ezw algorithm is capability of meeting an exact target bit rate with corresponding rate distortion rate(RDF). Set Partitioning in Hierarchical Trees (SPIHT) is an improved version of EZW and has become the general standard of EZW. SPIHT is a very efficient image compression algorithm that is based on the idea of coding groups of wavelet coefficients as zero trees. Since the order in which the subsets are tested for significance is important in a practical implementation the significance information is stored in three ordered lists called list of insignificant sets (LIS) list of insignificant pixels (LIP) and list of significant pixels (LSP). Modified SPIHT algorithm and the preprocessing techniques provide significant quality (both subjectively and objectively) reconstruction at the decoder with little additional computational complexity as compared to the previous techniques. This proposed method can reduce redundancy to a certain extend. Simulation results show that these hybrid algorithms yield quite promising PSNR values at low bitrates

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

Compression of 4D medical image and spatial segmentation using deformable models

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

An interactive toolbox for atlas-based segmentation and coding of volumetric images

Medical imaging poses the great challenge of having compression algorithms that are lossless for diagnostic and legal reasons and yet provide high compression rates for reduced storage and transmission time. The images usually consist of a region of interest representing the part of the body under investigation surrounded by a "background", which is often noisy and not of diagnostic interest. In this paper, we propose a ROI-based 3D coding system integrating both the segmentation and the compression tools. The ROI is extracted by an atlas based 3D segmentation method combining active contours with information theoretic principles, and the resulting segmentation map is exploited for ROI based coding. The system is equipped with a GUI allowing the medical doctors to supervise the segmentation process and eventually reshape the detected contours at any point. The process is initiated by the user through the selection of either one pre-de.ned reference image or one image of the volume to be used as the 2D "atlas". The object contour is successively propagated from one frame to the next where it is used as the initial border estimation. In this way, the entire volume is segmented based on a unique 2D atlas. The resulting 3D segmentation map is exploited for adaptive coding of the different image regions. Two coding systems were considered: the JPEG3D standard and the 3D-SPITH. The evaluation of the performance with respect to both segmentation and coding proved the high potential of the proposed system in providing an integrated, low-cost and computationally effective solution for CAD and PAC systems

High Speed Data Exchange Algorithm in Telemedicine with Wavelet based on 4D Medical Image Compression

Existing Medical imaging techniques such as fMRI, positron emission tomography (PET), dynamic 3D ultrasound and dynamic computerized tomography yield large amounts of four-dimensional sets. 4D medical data sets are the series of volumetric images netted in time, large in size and demand a great of assets for storage and transmission. Here, in this paper, we present a method wherein 3D image is taken and Discrete Wavelet Transform(DWT) and Dual-Tree Complex Wavelet Transform(DTCWT) techniques are applied separately on it and the image is split into sub-bands. The encoding and decoding are done using 3D-SPIHT, at different bit per pixels(bpp). The reconstructed image is synthesized using Inverse DWT technique. The quality of the compressed image has been evaluated using some factors such as Mean Square Error(MSE) and Peak-Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR)

Grid Analysis of Radiological Data

IGI-Global Medical Information Science Discoveries Research Award 2009International audienceGrid technologies and infrastructures can contribute to harnessing the full power of computer-aided image analysis into clinical research and practice. Given the volume of data, the sensitivity of medical information, and the joint complexity of medical datasets and computations expected in clinical practice, the challenge is to fill the gap between the grid middleware and the requirements of clinical applications. This chapter reports on the goals, achievements and lessons learned from the AGIR (Grid Analysis of Radiological Data) project. AGIR addresses this challenge through a combined approach. On one hand, leveraging the grid middleware through core grid medical services (data management, responsiveness, compression, and workflows) targets the requirements of medical data processing applications. On the other hand, grid-enabling a panel of applications ranging from algorithmic research to clinical use cases both exploits and drives the development of the services