DCT Implementation on GPU

There has been a great progress in the field of graphics processors. Since, there is no rise in the speed of the normal CPU processors; Designers are coming up with multi-core, parallel processors. Because of their popularity in parallel processing, GPUs are becoming more and more attractive for many applications. With the increasing demand in utilizing GPUs, there is a great need to develop operating systems that handle the GPU to full capacity. GPUs offer a very efficient environment for many image processing applications. This thesis explores the processing power of GPUs for digital image compression using Discrete cosine transform

Singular Value Decomposition Based Image Coding for Achieving Additional Compression to JPEG Images

Computer technology these days is most focused on storage space and speed. Considerable advancements in this direction can be achieved through the usage of digital image compression techniques. In this paper we present a well studied singular value decomposition based JPEG image compression technique. Singular Value Decomposition is a way of factorizing matrices into a series of linear approximations that expose the underlying structure of the matrix. SVD is extraordinarily useful and has many applications such as data analysis, signal processing, pattern recognition, objects detection and weather prediction. An attempt is made to implement this method of factorization to perform second round of compression on JPEG images to optimize storage space. Compression is further enhanced by the removal of singularity after the initial compression performed using SVD. MATLAB R2010a with image processing toolbox is used as the development tool for implementing the algorithm

Data comparison schemes for Pattern Recognition in Digital Images using Fractals

Pattern recognition in digital images is a common problem with application in remote sensing, electron microscopy, medical imaging, seismic imaging and astrophysics for example. Although this subject has been researched for over twenty years there is still no general solution which can be compared with the human cognitive system in which a pattern can be recognised subject to arbitrary orientation and scale. The application of Artificial Neural Networks can in principle provide a very general solution providing suitable training schemes are implemented. However, this approach raises some major issues in practice. First, the CPU time required to train an ANN for a grey level or colour image can be very large especially if the object has a complex structure with no clear geometrical features such as those that arise in remote sensing applications. Secondly, both the core and file space memory required to represent large images and their associated data tasks leads to a number of problems in which the use of virtual memory is paramount. The primary goal of this research has been to assess methods of image data compression for pattern recognition using a range of different compression methods. In particular, this research has resulted in the design and implementation of a new algorithm for general pattern recognition based on the use of fractal image compression. This approach has for the first time allowed the pattern recognition problem to be solved in a way that is invariant of rotation and scale. It allows both ANNs and correlation to be used subject to appropriate pre-and post-processing techniques for digital image processing on aspect for which a dedicated programmer's work bench has been developed using X-Designer

Giving eyes to ICT!, or How does a computer recognize a cow?

Het door Schouten en andere onderzoekers op het CWI ontwikkelde systeem berust op het beschrijven van beelden met behulp van fractale meetkunde. De menselijke waarneming blijkt mede daardoor zo efficiënt omdat zij sterk werkt met gelijkenissen. Het ligt dus voor de hand het te zoeken in wiskundige methoden die dat ook doen. Schouten heeft daarom beeldcodering met behulp van 'fractals' onderzocht. Fractals zijn zelfgelijkende meetkundige figuren, opgebouwd door herhaalde transformatie (iteratie) van een eenvoudig basispatroon, dat zich daardoor op steeds kleinere schalen vertakt. Op elk niveau van detaillering lijkt een fractal op zichzelf (Droste-effect). Met fractals kan men vrij eenvoudig bedrieglijk echte natuurvoorstellingen maken. Fractale beeldcodering gaat ervan uit dat het omgekeerde ook geldt: een beeld effectief opslaan in de vorm van de basispatronen van een klein aantal fractals, samen met het voorschrift hoe het oorspronkelijke beeld daaruit te reconstrueren. Het op het CWI in samenwerking met onderzoekers uit Leuven ontwikkelde systeem is mede gebaseerd op deze methode. ISBN 906196502

Video coding based on fractals and sparse representations

Orientador: Hélio PedriniDissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de ComputaçãoResumo: Vídeos são sequências de imagens estáticas representando cenas em movimento. Transmitir e armazenar essas imagens sem nenhum tipo de pré-processamento necessitaria de enormes larguras de banda nos canais de comunicação e uma quantidade massiva de espaço de armazenamento. A fim de reduzir o número de bits necessários para tais dados, foram criados métodos de compressão com perda. Esses métodos geralmente consistem em um codificador e um decodificador, tal que o codificador gera uma sequência de bits que representa uma aproximação razoável do vídeo através de um formato pré-especificado e o decodificador lê essa sequência, convertendo-a novamente em uma série de imagens. A transmissão de vídeos sob restrições extremas de largura de banda tem aplicações importantes como videoconferências e circuitos fechados de televisão. Neste trabalho são abordados dois métodos destinados a essa aplicação, decomposição usando representações esparsas e compressão fractal. A ampla maioria dos codificadores tem como mecanismo principal o uso de transformações inversíveis capazes de representar imagens espacialmente suaves com poucos coeficientes não-nulos. Representações esparsas são uma generalização dessa ideia, em que a transformação tem como base um conjunto cujo número de elementos excede a dimensão do espaço vetorial onde ela opera. A projeção dos dados pode ser feita a partir de uma heurística rápida chamada Matching Pursuit. Uma abordagem combinando essa heurística com um algoritmo para gerar a base sobrecompleta por aprendizado de máquina é apresentada. Codificadores fractais representam uma aproximação da imagem como um sistema de funções iterativas. Para isso, criam e transmitem uma sequência de comandos, chamada colagem, capazes de obter uma representação da imagem na escala original dada a mesma imagem em uma escala reduzida. A colagem é criada de tal forma que, se aplicada a uma imagem inicial qualquer repetidas vezes, reduzindo sua escala antes de toda iteração, converge em uma aproximação da imagem codificada. Métodos simplificados e rápidos para a criação da colagem e uma generalização desses métodos para a compressão de vídeos são apresentados. Ao invés de construir a colagem tentando mapear qualquer bloco da escala reduzida na escala original, apenas um conjunto pequeno de blocos é considerado. O método de compressão proposto para vídeos agrupa um conjunto de quadros consecutivos do vídeo em um fractal volumétrico. A colagem mapeia blocos tridimensionais entre as escalas, considerando uma escala menor tanto no tempo quanto no espaço. Uma adaptação desse método para canais de comunicação cuja largura de banda é instável também é propostaAbstract: A video is a sequence of still images representing scenes in motion. A video is a sequence of extremely similar images separated by abrupt changes in their content. If these images were transmitted and stored without any kind of preprocessing, this would require a massive amount of storage space and communication channels with very high bandwidths. Lossy compression methods were created in order to reduce the number of bits used to represent this kind of data. These methods generally consist in an encoder and a decoder, where the encoder generates a sequence of bits that represents an acceptable approximation of the video using a certain predefined format and the decoder reads this sequence, converting it back into a series of images. Transmitting videos under extremely limited bandwidth has important applications in video conferences or closed-circuit television systems. Two different approaches are explored in this work, decomposition based on sparse representations and fractal coding. Most video coders are based on invertible transforms capable of representing spatially smooth images with few non-zero coeficients. Sparse representations are a generalization of this idea using a transform that has an overcomplete dictionary as a basis. Overcomplete dictionaries are sets with more elements in it than the dimension of the vector space in which the transform operates. The data can be projected into this basis using a fast heuristic called Matching Pursuits. A video encoder combining this fast heuristic with a machine learning algorithm capable of constructing the overcomplete dictionary is proposed. Fractal encoders represent an approximation of the image through an iterated function system. In order to do that, a sequence of instructions, called a collage, is created and transmitted. The collage can construct an approximation of the original image given a smaller scale version of it. It is created in such a way that, when applied to any initial image several times, contracting it before each iteration, it converges into an approximation of the encoded image. Simplier and faster methods for creating a collage and a generalization of these methods to video compression are presented. Instead of constructing a collage by matching any block from the smaller scale to the original one, a small subset of possible matches is considered. The proposed video encoding method creates groups of consecutive frames which are used to construct a volumetric fractal. The collage maps tridimensional blocks between the different scales, using a smaller scale in both space and time. An improved version of this algorithm designed for communication channels with variable bandwidth is presentedMestradoCiência da ComputaçãoMestre em Ciência da Computaçã

Investigation of Different Video Compression Schemes Using Neural Networks

Image/Video compression has great significance in the communication of motion pictures and still images. The need for compression has resulted in the development of various techniques including transform coding, vector quantization and neural networks. this thesis neural network based methods are investigated to achieve good compression ratios while maintaining the image quality. Parts of this investigation include motion detection, and weight retraining. An adaptive technique is employed to improve the video frame quality for a given compression ratio by frequently updating the weights obtained from training. More specifically, weight retraining is performed only when the error exceeds a given threshold value. Image quality is measured objectively, using the peak signal-to-noise ratio versus performance measure. Results show the improved performance of the proposed architecture compared to existing approaches. The proposed method is implemented in MATLAB and the results obtained such as compression ratio versus signalto- noise ratio are presented

The Space and Earth Science Data Compression Workshop

This document is the proceedings from a Space and Earth Science Data Compression Workshop, which was held on March 27, 1992, at the Snowbird Conference Center in Snowbird, Utah. This workshop was held in conjunction with the 1992 Data Compression Conference (DCC '92), which was held at the same location, March 24-26, 1992. The workshop explored opportunities for data compression to enhance the collection and analysis of space and Earth science data. The workshop consisted of eleven papers presented in four sessions. These papers describe research that is integrated into, or has the potential of being integrated into, a particular space and/or Earth science data information system. Presenters were encouraged to take into account the scientists's data requirements, and the constraints imposed by the data collection, transmission, distribution, and archival system

Fractal methods in image analysis and coding

In this thesis we present an overview of image processing techniques which use fractal methods in some way. We show how these fields relate to each other, and examine various aspects of fractal methods in each area. The three principal fields of image processing and analysis th a t we examine are texture classification, image segmentation and image coding. In the area of texture classification, we examine fractal dimension estimators, comparing these methods to other methods in use, and to each other. We attempt to explain why differences arise between various estimators of the same quantity. We also examine texture generation methods which use fractal dimension to generate textures of varying complexity. We examine how fractal dimension can contribute to image segmentation methods. We also present an in-depth analysis of a novel segmentation scheme based on fractal coding. Finally, we present an overview of fractal and wavelet image coding, and the links between the two. We examine a possible scheme involving both fractal and wavelet methods