Orthonormal wavelet-based contourlet transform coding using an EBCOT-like algorithm

In this paper, an image coding algorithm based on a rate-distortion optimized wavelet-based contourlet transform (WBCT) decomposition and on a block-partitioning coding scheme which quantizes each subband separately is proposed. In this way, our algorithm naturally overcomes the difficulty in defining parent-child relationships for wavelet-based contourlet subbands, which exists in the zerotree based methods. The main merit of the proposed method is that the Wavelet-Based Contourlet Transform (WBCT) can provide optimally sparse representation of objects with singularities along c² edges. The experimental simulation results show that the proposed algorithm significantly outperforms SPIHT and JPEG2000 schemes and also surpasses recent WBCT based image coding algorithms, in terms of both the PSNR-rate curves and visual quality.