Are the Wavelet Transforms the Best Filter Banks for Image Compression?

Ilangko Balasingham, Tor A. Ramstad
2008 EURASIP Journal on Image and Video Processing  
Maximum regular wavelet filter banks have received much attention in the literature, and it is a general conception that they enjoy some type of optimality for image coding purposes. To investigate this claim, this article focuses on one particular biorthogonal wavelet filter bank, namely, the 2-channel 9/7. As a comparison, we generate all possible 9/7 filter banks with perfect reconstruction and linear phase while having a different number of zeros at z = −1 for both analysis and synthesis
more » ... pass filters. The best performance is obtained when the filter bank has 2/2 zeros at z = −1 for the analysis and synthesis lowpass filters, respectively. The competing wavelet 9/7 filter bank, which has 4/4 zeros at z = −1, is thus judged inferior both in terms of objective error measurements and informal visual inspections. It is further shown that the 9/7 wavelet filter bank can be obtained using gain-optimized 9/7 filter bank.
doi:10.1155/2008/287197 fatcat:k2q2kca5hnejfclnzhh5fk6bba