International Conference on ICT-Initiatives, Policies & Governance, Dehradun, India, 28-29 Nov 2011

Comparative Study of Different Wavelet Based Image Compression

Techniques
Krishna Kumar1, Basant Kumar2, Dharmendra Kumar3 and Rachna Shah4

1
M.Tech (Student), Motilal Nehru NIT Allahabad, India, krishnanitald@gmail.com
2
Assistant Prof. ECE Department, Motilal Nehru NIT Allahabad, India, singhbasant@mnnit.ac.in
3
B.E, Commercial Tex Officer, Government of Uttarakhand, dharmen_mitra@yahoo.co.in
4
M.Tech (Student), NIT Kurukshetra, India, rachna.shah27@gmail.com

Abstract: The objective of this paper is to identify efficient wavelet based image
compression technique. The techniques involved in the comparison process are set
partitioning in hierarchical trees (SPIHT), Embedded Zerotree Wavelet (EZW) and
Self-Organizing Feature Maps (SOFM). These techniques are more efficient and
provide a better quality of image. In compression, wavelets have shown a good
adaptability to a wide range of data, while being of reasonable complexity. This paper
focuses important features of wavelet transform in compression of still images,
including the extent to which the quality of image is degraded by the process of
wavelet compression and decompression. The techniques are compared by using
the performance parameters PSNR and MSE.
Keywords: SPIHT, EZW, SOFM.
I. Introduction
With the development of consumer electronic and multimedia, the demand of image
compression technologies increased rapidly. Image compression addresses the
problem of reducing the amount of data required to represent a digital image. The
purpose of image compression is to reduce redundancy of the image data in order to
be able to store or transmit data in an efficient form. Image compression is divided
into lossless compression and lossy compression. The approaches for lossless
image compression include variable-length encoding, Adaptive dictionary algorithms
such as LZW, bit-plane coding, lossless predictive coding, etc. The approaches for
lossy compression include lossy predictive coding and transform coding. Transform
coding, which applies a Fourier-related transform such as DCT or the wavelet
transform, is the most commonly used approach. The wavelet approach improves
image quality and reduces the image file size by using denoising and compression
techniques [12].The compression offers a means to reduce the cost of storage and
increase the speed of transmission. Image compression is used to minimize the size
in bytes of a graphics file without degrading the quality of the image. Wavelet based
image compression based on set partitioning in hierarchical trees (SPIHT) [1] and is
a powerful, efficient and yet computationally simple image compression algorithm. It
provides a better performance when compared to the Embedded Zerotree wavelet
transform [13].
II. SPIHT Algorithm
SPIHT is the wavelet based image compression method. It provides the Highest
Image Quality, Progressive image transmission, fully embedded coded file, Simple
quantization algorithm, fast coding/decoding, completely adaptive, lossless
compression, exact bit rate coding and Error protection. SPIHT makes use of three
lists – the List of Significant Pixels (LSP), List of Insignificant Pixels (LIP) and List of
Insignificant Sets (LIS). These are coefficient location lists that contain their
coordinates. After the initialization, the algorithm takes two stages for each level of
International Conference on ICT-Initiatives, Policies & Governance, Dehradun, India, 28-29 Nov 2011

threshold – the sorting pass (in which lists are organized) and the refinement pass
(which does the actual progressive coding transmission). The result is in the form of a
bitstream. It is capable of recovering the image perfectly (every single bit of it) by
coding all bits of the transform. However, the wavelet transform yields perfect
reconstruction only if its numbers are stored as infinite precision numbers. Peak
signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) is one of the quantitative measures for image quality
evaluation which is based on the mean square error (MSE) of the reconstructed
image. The MSE for N x M size image is given by

Where the original image data is is the compressed image value and N is the
total number of pixels. The formula for PSNR is given by:

The main steps are as follows:

It is important to have the encoder and decoder test sets for significance in the same
way, so the coding algorithm uses three lists called list of significant pixels (LSP), list
of insignificant pixels (LIP), and list of insignificant sets (LIS).
1. Initialization: Set n to [log2 maxi,j(Ci,j)] and transmit n. Set the LSP to empty.
Set the LIP to the coordinates of all the roots (i, j) Є H. Set the LIS to the
coordinates of all the roots (i, j) Є H that have descendants.
2. Sorting pass:
2.1 For each entry (i, j) in the LIP do:
2.1.1 Output ;
2.1.2 If = 1, move (i, j) to the LSP and output the sign of .
2.2 For each entry (i, j) in the LIS do:
2.2.1 If the entry is of type A, then output Sn(D(i, j));
if (D(i,j)) = 1, then for each (k, l) Є O(i, j) do: output (k, l);
if ( (k, l) = 1, add (k, l) to the LSP, output the sign of ;
if ( k, l) = 0, append (k, l) to the LIP;
if L(i, j) not equal to 0, move (i, j) to the end of the LIS, as a type-B
entry;
2.2.2 else, remove entry (i, j) from the LIS;
2.2.3 if the entry is of type B, then output ( (L(i, j));
if ( (L(i, j)) = 1, then append each (k, l) Є O(i,j) to the LIS as
a type-A entry: remove (i, j) from the LIS:
3. Refinement pass: for each entry (i, j) in the LSP, except those included in the
last sorting pass (the one with the same n), output the nth most significant bit
of | |.
4. Loop: decrement n by 1 and go to step 2 if needed.
III. EZW Algorithm
The EZW algorithm was introduced in the paper of Shapiro [2]. The expansion of
EZW is Embedded Zerotree Wavelet. The core of the EZW compression is the
exploitation of self-similarity across different scales of an image wavelet transform. In
other words EZW approximates higher frequency coefficients of a wavelet
transformed image. Because the wavelet transform coefficients contain information
International Conference on ICT-Initiatives, Policies & Governance, Dehradun, India, 28-29 Nov 2011

about both spatial and frequency content of an image, discarding a high-frequency

coefficient leads to some image degradation in a particular location of the restored
image rather than across the whole image. Here, the threshold is used to calculate a
significance map of significant and insignificant wavelet coefficients. Zerotrees are
used to represent the significance map in an efficient way.
The main steps are as follows:
1. Initialization: Set the threshold T to the smallest power of 2 that is greater than
max (i,j) | /2, where are the wavelet coefficients.
2. Significance map coding: Scan all the coefficients in a predefined way and
output a symbol when | > T. When the decoder inputs this symbol, it sets |
= ±1.5T.
3. Refinement: Refine each significant coefficient by sending one more bit of its
binary representation. When the decoder receives this, it increments the
current coefficient value by ±0.25T.
4. Set T = T/2, and go to step 2 if more iterations are needed.
IV. SOFM Algorithm
Self-Organizing Feature Maps also known as Kohonen maps were first introduced by
Von Der Malsburg and in its present form by Kohonen [14]. This SOFM algorithm is
based on competitive learning. Here, neurons are placed at the nodes of a lattice.
Neurons become selectively tuned to various input patterns. Output neurons
compete among themselves to be activated. From that, only one or one neuron per
group wins. The location of the winning neurons tends to become ordered in such a
way that a meaningful coordinate system for different input feature is created.
The main steps are as follows:
The SOFM algorithm consists of four basic steps. It is shown in the following.
1. Initialization: Choose random values for the initial weight vector
must be different for j=1, 2, 3…k.
2. Sampling: Draw a sample c from the input distribution with a certain probability.
3. Similarity Matching:
3.1. The best matching criterion is equivalent to the minimum Euclidean
distance between vectors.
3.2. Mapping q(c) identifies the neuron that best matches the input vector c.

4. Updating:

Continue until noticeable changes are observed.

V. Simulation & Results
The images Lena, Baboon, Cameraman, Peppers, Barbara and Bridge are used. The
results that got by using SPIHT technique are shown in the Fig. 1.

Fig. 1 SPIHT Compression of Lena, Baboon, Cameraman, Peppers, Barbara and Bridge
International Conference on ICT-Initiatives, Policies & Governance, Dehradun, India, 28-29 Nov 2011

SPIHT provides better results when compared to the EZW. The Fig. 2 shows the
results that got by using the EZW technique. EZW is used to produce a fully
embedded bit stream.

Fig. 2 EZW Compression of Lena, Baboon, Cameraman, Peppers, Barbara and Bridge

The results that got by using SOFM technique are shown in Fig. 3. The images
provide less quality when compare to the other techniques.

Fig.3 SOFM Compression of Lena, Baboon, Cameraman, Peppers, Barbara and Bridge

VI. Performance Analysis

S.No. Image SPIHT EZW SOFM

PSNR MSE PSNR MSE PSNR MSE
1 Lena 39.85 5.98 25.6 161 11.502 4.6543e+003
2 Cameraman 34.98 19 24.2 234 10.98 4.2439 e+003
3 Bridge 29.5 72.23 23.68 280.3 10.5548 4.4457 e+003
4 Barbara 38.892 15.22 22.7 340.33 10.38 4.5537 e+003
5 Peppers 37.25 11 23.11 82.67 10.7 4.1261 e+003
6 Baboon 27.73 92 21.33 138.11 10.89 4.8735e+003
TABLE: 1 (PSNR & MSE Values for SPIHT, EZW and SOFM)

Fig. 4 Comparison of PSNR values for SPIHT, Fig. 5 Comparison of MSE values for SPIHT, EZW
EZW & SOFM
International Conference on ICT-Initiatives, Policies & Governance, Dehradun, India, 28-29 Nov 2011

From the comparison of SPIHT, EZW and SOFM by using PSNR and MSE are
shown in Fig.4 and Fig. 5. We can analyze that the SPIHT based image compression
technique always provide higher value of PSNR for all images.

VII. Conclusion
The results of the above techniques SPIHT, EZW and SOFM are compared by using
two parameters such as PSNR and MSE values from the reconstructed image.
These compression algorithms provide a better performance in picture quality at low
bit rates. One of the important features of SPIHT is that it uses the progressive
transmission and its use of embedded coding. It is observed that SPIHT provides a
better result when compare to EZW and SOFM.

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