Embedded Laplacian pyramid image coding using conditional arithmetic coding

A method for still image coding is proposed which allows for progressive transmission, because low detailed versions of the image can be reconstructed from a truncated bit stream. The proposed method is in its main aspects close to the classical pyramid approach of Burt and Adelson (1983). While retaining the main idea of using a Laplacian pyramid type decomposition, the new proposal differs in the filters employed for pyramid decomposition and in the bit allocation and quantization. The image is decomposed into an improved Laplacian pyramid. The pyramid is quantized and coded following a layered quantization approach together with a layered coding method based on conditional arithmetic coding. The encoder outputs an embedded bit stream. Thus the decoder may truncate the bit stream at any point, which results in a more or less detailed image. Besides this rate-distortion scalability the coder has a multiresolution property, due to the pyramid decomposition. An extension to hybrid video coding is also discussed