DNA based image coding

Lossless image compression is necessary for many applications related to digital cameras, medical imaging, mobile telecommunications, security and entertainment. Image compression as an important filed in image processing, includes several coding standards providing high compression ratios. In this work a novel method for lossless image encoding and decoded is introduced. Inspired by the storing and data representation architectures used in living multicellular organisms, the proposed DNACoding approach encodes images based on the same principles. The coding process includes three main stages, division, differentiation and specialization allowing the exploitation of spatial and inter-pixel redundancies. The key element to achieve that representation and efficiency is the novel concept of ‘stem’ pixels that is introduced. A comparative study was performed with current state of the art lossless image coding standards showing that the proposed methodology provides high compression rations.