New image coding scheme with hierarchical representation and adaptive interpolation

In this paper, we propose a new image coding scheme which combines the advantage of hierarchical (i.e. multi- resolution) representation, adaptive interpolation and rate- distortion optimization capability of block-based coding. We divide the coding process into two layers by partitioning the image pixels into four groups with chessboard structure. In the first layer, pixels in one of these partitions are encoded and reconstructed using the state-of-the-art coding scheme. In the second layer, directional adaptive interpolation is employed to predict and code the pixels in the remaining three partitions. Joint mode decision is performed for the co-located macroblocks of these three partitions. Skip mode is introduced to save coding bits for blocks where the interpolation process works very well. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed coding scheme achieves very promising performance.