An Image Compression Scheme Adopted for Contourlet Transform

Set partitioning in hierarchical trees (SPIHT) image compression algorithm based on wavelet transform can´t effectively express the image of the texture and contour. Contourlet transform can retain image details better because it avoids down sampling to high-frequency subband, and the coefficient is also sparser than it of wavelet transform. In this paper, a suitable SPIHT algorithm for contourlet transform was proposed for its coefficient matrix characteristics and distribution. The new algorithm not only overcome the disadvantage of not protecting details and texture effectively when using wavelet transform, but also saves coding time, at the same time enhance the image of the peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR). Simulation results show that the method is an efficient image compression algorithm. Its compression effect is obviously better than traditional SPIHT algorithms based on wavelet transform and WBCT (especially at low bit rates). It has generality.