A tutorial on modern lossy wavelet image compression: foundations of JPEG 2000

One of the purposes of this article is to give a general audience sufficient background into the details and techniques of wavelet coding to better understand the JPEG 2000 standard. The focus is on the fundamental principles of wavelet coding and not the actual standard itself. Some of the confusing design choices made in wavelet coders are explained. There are two types of filter choices: orthogonal and biorthogonal. Orthogonal filters have the property that there are energy or norm preserving. Nevertheless, modern wavelet coders use biorthogonal filters which do not preserve energy. Reasons for these specific design choices are explained. Another purpose of this article is to compare and contrast “early” wavelet coding with “modern” wavelet coding. This article compares the techniques of the modern wavelet coders to the subband coding techniques so that the reader can appreciate how different modern wavelet coding is from early wavelet coding. It discusses basic properties of the wavelet transform which are pertinent to image compression. It builds on the background material in generic transform coding given, shows that boundary effects motivate the use of biorthogonal wavelets, and introduces the symmetric wavelet transform. Subband coding or “early” wavelet coding method is discussed followed by an explanation of the EZW coding algorithm. Other modern wavelet coders that extend the ideas found in the EZW algorithm are also described