A Telepathology Model Using JPEG Algorithm for Histological Image Compression
Boniface Kayode Alese, Adebowale Joseph Adelakun, O. Iyare, Oloruntoba Samuel Ogundele · 2014
The specific objectives of the research were to examine the efficacy of Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) as an image compression algorithm using the Joint Photographic Expert Group (JPEG) standard; and determine the suitability or otherwise of application of DCT on images required for Collaborative Pathological diagnosis. Seven histological images acquired with the use of Digital microscope from the University of Alberta, Canada were sent by e-mail by the Lead Pathologist to the researcher in Nigeria. These were compressed using GNU Image Processing software (GIMP, a third party freeware) at 25% and 50% factor and presented randomly to researchers. The result showed that JPEG is efficient in compression of medical images because the images compressed at 25% factor were reduced from between 22% - 32%. The ones compressed at 50% factor were reduced between 15% - 20% which revealed that though the JPEG algorithm does not reduce images literarily based on the factor of reduction, size reduction is still significant. The conclusion therefore is that the DCT is an efficient image compression algorithm and that using JPEG for telepathology systems is not only suitable but desirable because of the various practical usefulness to providing cost effective pathology services to the rural areas of the developing world.