Significance tree quantization of the discrete cosine transform

A number of embedded transform coders, including Shapiro´s (1993) EZW scheme, Said and Pearlman´s (see IEEE Trans. Circuits and Systems for Video Technology, vol.6, no.3, p.243-50, 1996) SPIHT scheme, and Xiong et al.´s (see IEEE Signal Processing Letters, November 1996) EZDCT scheme employ a common algorithm called significance tree quantization (STQ). Each of these coders have been selected from a large family of significance tree quantizers based on empirical work and a priori knowledge about transform coefficient behavior. We describe an algorithm for selecting a particular form of STQ that is optimized for a given class of images. We apply our optimization procedure to the task of quantizing 8×8 DCT blocks. Our algorithm yields a fully embedded, low-complexity coder with PSNRs from 0.7 to 1.7 dB better than baseline JPEG for standard test images