Gradient match and side match fractal vector quantizers for images

In this paper, we propose gradient match fractal vector quantizers (GMFVQs) and side match fractal vector quantizers (SMFVQs), which are two classes of finite state fractal vector quantizers (FSFVQs), for the image coding framework. In our previous work, we proposed the noniterative fractal block coding (FBC) technique to improve the decoding speed and the coding performance for conventional FBC techniques. To reduce the number of bits for denoting the fractal code of the range block, the concepts of the gradient match vector quantizers (GMVQs) and the side match vector quantizers (SMVQs) are employed to the noniterative FBC technique. Unlike ordinary vector quantizers, the super codebooks in the proposed GMFVQs and SMFVQs are generated from the affine-transformed domain blocks in the noniterative FBC technique. The codewords in the state codebook are dynamically extracted from the super codebook with the side-match and gradient-match criteria. The redundancy in the affine-transformed domain blocks is greatly reduced and the compression ratio can be significantly increased. Our simulation results show that 15%–20% of the bit rates in the noniterative FBC technique are saved by using the proposed GMFVQs.