Interactive wavelet-based image compression with arbitrary region preservation

We have developed a software module which perforins 2-D and 3-D image compression based on wavelet transforms. The compression is not lossless, but the software allows the user to interactively determine the degree of compression (by viewing the results) and to interactively define specific regions of the image of any size and shape that are to be preserved with maximum fidelity while the rest of the image is compressed (again, viewing the results). These capabilities may be of interest in applications such as teleradiology.