Efficient implementation of adaptive LZW algorithm for medical image compression

The paper presents an efficient adaptive Lempel-Ziv-Welch (LZW) data compression algorithm for medical image compression applications. The encoder is based on custom-sized library and custom-valued threshold where both the size of the library and the threshold parameters are adjusted by the user. The algorithm is compared with other existing compression schemes applicable to medical imaging. Because of the adaptive nature, the output of encoder can be controlled as per the bandwidth requirement of the data transmission and storage capacity. The simulation is carried out on several medical and endoscopic images and the results show that a compression ratio of 94% can be achieved with a reconstruction quality of 40 dB. The estimated energy consumption is 21.6mJ for a 256×256 color image with a frame rate of 2fps.