Combining image classification and image compression using vector quantization

The goal is to produce codes where the compressed image incorporates classification information without further signal processing. This technique can provide direct low level classification or an efficient front end to more sophisticated full-frame recognition algorithms. Vector quantization is a natural choice because two of its design components, clustering and tree-structured classification methods, have obvious applications to the pure classification problem as well as to the compression problem. The authors explicitly incorporate a Bayes risk component into the distortion measure used for code design in order to permit a tradeoff of mean squared error with classification error. This method is used to analyze simulated data, identify tumors in computerized tomography lung images, and identify man-made regions in aerial images