Application of linear-phase near-perfect-reconstruction QMF banks in image compression

Subband image coding has been shown to be an effective technique for high quality coding at low bit rates. The choice of filter bank is a critical issue that affects image quality as well as system design. In this paper we investigate the use of linear phase NPR QMF banks for subband image coding. For this purpose, these are compared with the best suited biorthogonal filter banks for image coding. As criteria for comparison we use objective and subjective performance of the encoded images. Coding experiments conducted on image data indicate that NPR QMF banks are competitive with the best biorthogonal filter banks. The impact of some filter characteristics, such as stopband attenuation, stopband edge, filter length and coding gain on the performance of the reconstructed images is also investigated