Block-Matching Based Image Compression

In this paper, the motion estimation technique used in video compression is extended to still image compression, for which we called it the block-matching based image compression. Using a small amount of sampled data in the spatial domain, an approximate image of the original image is reconstructed. Then each block of the original image is obtained by searching the approximate image. The best match is selected with the minimal prediction error. This gives motion vector and the residual coefficients are obtained. Finally the sampled data, residual coefficients and block position are coded as the output bit-stream. Experimental work has been done and compared with JPEG, JPEG2000 and H.264 to show the validity of proposed algorithm.