Error accumulation in multiple cycles of still image compression and color transformations

The problem of error accumulation in consecutive compression/decompression cycles of still images is discussed in this article. Considered are predictive and transform techniques together with color transformations. Theoretical analysis is provided for error accumulation in linear transformations followed by quantization. The conditions for lack of error accumulation are discussed. This theoretical analysis is applied to color transformations and compression cycles. Experimental analysis verifies theoretical results and deals with more complicated cases. The experimental analysis includes lossy and near lossless compression as well as color transformations themselves. Moreover, a new technique of near lossless compression with no error accumulation is proposed.