Nonlinear feature extraction for perceptually-based low-bit-rate image coding
Michael L. Lightstone, Stefan Thurnhofer, Sanjit K. Mitra · Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE · 1993
A novel feature extraction technique based on a new class of nonlinear filters is presented for perceptually based, low bit rate image compression. In addition to having remarkable computational efficiency, the filters adaptively extract perceptually relevant edge and texture information with less amplification of noise than conventional linear filters. A two-band nonlinear decomposition based on the filters is constructed so that this feature information can be separated from the image. Separate coding strategies are examined that effectively quantize these features and the more stationary, low frequency residual information. The resulting compression scheme is compared with traditional methods of image compression and is shown to exhibit clear advantages in perceptual reconstruction quality.