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COMMUNICATIONS, VOL.

COM-22,

NO.

8,

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pacity for noisy filter channels, in Conj. Rec., 1972 I E E E Znt. Conf. Communications, Philadelphia, Pa., sec. 22, pp. 12-16. [lo] P. A. Bello, J . W. Graham,and L. Ehrman,Troposcatter multichannel digital systems study, RomeAir Develop. Cent., Rome. N. Y.. RADC TR-67-218. Mav 1967. [ll] , Tro oscatter multimode FSKYPSK modem, Rome Air Develop. Zent., Rome,N. Y., RADC Final ,Rep. F30602-68~ 4 4 7 .-. ---a 1wn. T ~ ~ I -. ~ [la] P. A. Bello, L. Ehrman, and D. Arnstein, :Modeling and data analysis-short and medium range digital troposcatter tests, Rome Air Develop. Cent., Rome, N. Y., RADC-TR-69-233, Oct. 1969. [13] P. E. Green, Jr.,Radar measurements of targetscattering properties, Radar Astronomy, J. V. Evans and T. Hagfors, Ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1968, ch. 1, p. 1. [14] P. A. Bello, A study of the relationship between multipath distortionand wave number spectrums of refractiveindexin radio links, Proc. I E E E , vol. 59, pp. 47-75, Jan. 1971. [15] P. Monsen and S. H. Richman, A comparison of digital techniques for troposcatter applications, i n Conf. Rec., 1973 Nat. ,. Telecommunications Conf., Atlanta, Ga., Nov. 1973. ~ ; - [ l 6 ] E . R. Shamash, Communication, in the presence of intersymbol interference; Ph.D. dissertation, , Univ. of California, Los .Angeles, 1973.

-, , t

Peter Monsen (S60-M64) was born in Quincy, Mass., on March 24, 1940. He received the B.S. degree in electrical engineering from Northeastern University, Boston, Mass., in 1962, the M.S. degree in operation research of TechfromtheMassachusettsInstitute nology, Cambridge, in 1963, and the Eng.Sc.D. degree in electrical engineering from Columbia University, New York, N. Y., in 1970. in During a two year period beginning January 1964, he served as .a lieutenant in the U. S. Army at the Defense Communication Agency, Arlington, Va., where he was concerned with communication systems engineering. From 1966 to 1972 he was with the Bell Telephone Laboratories, Holmdel; N. J., where he was Supervisor of a Transmission Studies Group whose work included fading-channel characterization and adapt.ive equalization. He is presently withSignatron, Inc., Lexington, Mass., where he is responsible for the systems engineering of a 13-Mbps troposcatter modem being developed for USA ECOM. Dr. Monsen is a member of Eta Kappa Nu, Tau Beta Pi, and Sigma Xi.

Slant TransformImage
WILLIAM K. PRATT,
MEMBER, IEEE,

Coding
AND

WEN-HSIUNG CHEN,

LLOYD R. WELCH

Abstract-A new unitary transform called the slant transform, specifically designedforimage coding, has been developed. The transformation possesses a discrete sawtoothlike basis vector which efficiently represents linear. brightness variations along an image line; A fast computational algorithm has been found for the transformation. The slant transformation has been utilized in several transform image-coding systems for monochrome and color images. Computer simulation results indicate that good quaiity coding can be accomplished with about 1 to 2 bits/pixel for monochrome images and 2 to 3 bits/pixel for color images.

I.INTRODUCTION URING the pasttwenty years the applications of electronic imagery have grown enormously. This growth has placed severe demands on the capabilities of communication systems, since conventional television transmission requires exceptionally wide bandwidths.. One
Paper approved by the Associate Editor for Communication Theory of the IEEE Communicatiorls Society for publication after presentation atthe 1973 Symposium on Applications of Walsh Functions. Manuscript received October .15, 1973; revised March 1, 1974. This work was supported in part by the Advanced Research Projects Agency of the Department of Defense and monitored by the Air Force Eastern Test Range under Contract F08606-72-C-0008. W. K. Pratt a6d L. R. Welch are with the Electrical Engineering Department, Image Processing Institute, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, Calif. 90007. W:-H. Chen was with the Electrical Engineering Department, Image Processing Institute, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, Calif. 90007:He is now with the Philco-Ford Corporation, Palo Alto, Calif.

means of bandwidth reduction that has shown particular promise is the transform image-coding process [l]. I n 196s) the concept of coding andtransmittingthe two-dimensional Fourier transform of an image, computed by a fast computational algorithm, rather than the image itself, was introduced [ a ] , [SI. This was followed shortly thereafter by the discovery that the Hadamardtransform could be utilized in place of the Fourier transform with a considerable decrease in computational requirements [ ] 4, [ I Investigations then began into the application of the S. Karhunen-Loeve [SI, [7] and Haar [SI transforms for image coding. The Iiarhunen-Loevetransform provides minimum mean-square error coding performance but, unfortunateiy, does not possess a fast computational algorithm. On the otherhand,theHaartransformhas the attribute of an extremely efficient computational algorithm, but results in a larger coding error. None of the transforms mentioned above, however, has been expressly tailored to the characteristics of an image. A major attribute of an image transform is that the transformcompact the image energy to a few of the transform domain samples. A high degree of energy compaction will result if the basis vectors of the transform matrix resemble typical horizontal or verticallines of an image. I the lines of a typical monochrome image are f examined, it will be found that a large number of the lines are of constant grey level over a considerable length. The Fourier, Hadamard,andHaartransforms possess

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1076

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1974

a constant valued basis vector that provides an efficient representation for constant grey level image lines, while the Karhunen-Loeve transform a hasnearly constant basis vector suitable for this representation. Another typical image line is.one which increases or decreases in brightness over 'the length in linear fashion. 'Noneof the a transformspreeously mentioned possess abasisvector that efficiently represents such image lines. ShibataandEnomoto have' introduced ort,hogonal transforms containing a "slant" basis vector for data of vector lengths of four and eight [SI. The slant vector i s a discrete saytooth waveform decreasing in uniform steps over its length, which is suitable for efficiently representinggradualbrightnesschangesin ap imageline.Their work gives no indication of a construction for larger size data vectors, nor does it exhibit the use of a fast comput,ationalalgorithm. In order 'to achieveahighdegree of image-coding compression transform with coding techniques, it is necessary to perform the two-dimensional transform ovqr block sizes 16 X 16 picture.elements or greater. For lqrge block sizes, computation is usually not feasible unlpss a fast algorithm is employed. With this background, an investigation undertaken was t o develop an image-coding slant-transform matrix possessing the following propert,ies: 1) orthonormal set of basis vectors; 2) one constant basis vector.; 3) one slant basis vector; 4) sequency property; 5)' variable size transformation; 6) fast computational algorithm; and7 ) high energy compaction. The following sections describe the construction of the slant-transformationmatrix,present a fast computational'algorithm, discuss its image-codingperformance, andprovide examples of its use forcoding monochrome and color images. Original images employed the simulation of the coding in systemsstudiedare shown inFig. 1. The monochrome imagescontain 256 X 256 pixels witheachcalibrated intensity value linearly quantized to 256 levels. The red, greee, and bluetristimulusvalues of the color pictures have each been linearly quantized to 256 levels.
,

The inverse transformation to recover [ F ] from the transform components [ S I is given by

It is also convenient to establish. a series representation of the transform operation. The two-dimensional'forward and inverse transforms in series form can be expressed as
S(u,v> =
I

j-1

cc F ( j , k ) S ( u , A S ( k , v )
k-1

N . N

(4)

and
N N

F(j,k)

=
u=l u=l

$j(u,v) S ( j , u ) ( v , k ) . S

(5)

Fig.2containsfull size, two-dimensionalslant-trarisformdisplays of the three monochromeoriginalimages of Fig. 1. The logarithm'of the absolute value of each transformsampleisdisplayedinFig. 2(a)-(c)rather than the absolute value itself in order to reduce the dynamic range of the display. Fig. i ( d ) shows a threshold display of Fig.' 2 (a) inwhich all samples whose magnitude is below a specified threshold are set zero and allsamples to whose magnitude ii above the threshold are set to a constant brightness. The typical energy distribution of the slant transformof an image,is apparent from these pict'ures.

B. SlantTransform Matrix
. The slant transform a member of a class of transforms is whose matrices are orthogonal, have a constant function for the first row, and have a second row which is a linear (slant) function of the' column index. The .matrices are formed byaniterativeconstructionthat exhibits the matrices' as products of sparse matrices, which in turn leads to a fast transform algorithm. The slant-transform'matrix of order two consisting of a constant and a slant'basis vector is given by
'

rl

1 1
J *

1 -1

11. SLANTTRANSFORM
A slant-transformmatrix possessing all of the above properties has been developed [lo]. A description of its construction,fastalgorithm,andapplication to image transformation follows.

The slant matrix order four is obtained by the operation of

A . Two-Dimensional Transform
Let [ F ] be an N X N matrix of the picture element (pixel) brightness values of an image and let' be an N X '1 vector representing the ith column of [ F ] . ,The one-dimensional transform of theith image line then

vi]

b4

a4J
1

L
1

or
1

Cfil = cslv~l
'

(1)

where [ S I is the N X N unitary slant matrix. A twodimensional slanttransformisperformedbysequential row and columntransformationson CF], yielding

[Fj = [ S j [ F ] [ S ] ?

PRATT

et al.:

IMAGE CODING

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(a) monochrome g i r l

(d) color girl

( b ) monochrome couple

( e ) colorcouple

(c) monochrome moonscape

Fig. 1. Original monochrome and color images.

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS

ON COMMUNICATIONS,

AUGUST

1974

( 4
Fig. 2 . Slant-transform dornain logarithm of magnitude display. (a) Girl. (b) Couple. (c) Moonscape. (d) Transform threshold girl.

where a4 and b4 are scaling constants. The first two rows of the left factor of (7a) are uniquely determined IJy the orthogonalitv condition and the requirement that the first row of S must be a positive constant and the second row 4 must be linear with negative slope. The step sizes between adjacent elements o f the slant vector of (7h) are 261, 2a.1 2b4, and 2b4. By setting these steps sizes eqnal, one finds that

mcnts, the scalar multiplier l/fi is ignored; multiplication by f l is considered trivial). When the values of a and 4 b4 are substituted into (7b), the slant matrix of order 4 becomes
1
1 1 1

al
The orthonormality

26,.
As4

1
=

condition [&][&]' [ I ] lcads to =

41/"

-1 1

-1

-1 1 -3 3 - - _ _ -

The third and fourth rows of the lcft factor of (7a) form an orthonormal basis for vectors orthogonal t o the first two rows and have the property that among all such bases, this basis requires the smallest number of nolltrivial multiplications. In considering computational require-

51/3

51/2

51/2

It is easily seen that t.he rows of Saform an orthonormal set. Furthermore, X,possesses the sequency property; each row has a distinctnumber of sign reversals and each

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PRATT

et a2.: IMAGE

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integer from 0 to 3 is the number of sign reversals of some row. An extension of the slant matrix t o its next size of order S is given by

0 0

0
1

o i o

21/2

0 0

1 0

:
1 ;

o 0

0 - 1
0

, o

0-1-

The first two rows of the left factor are determined by orthonormalityand the requirement that the first row of 8 8 be constant and thesecond row be linear with negative slope. Rows five and six of X are also linear combina8 tions of the first two rows of S . The particular combina4 tionsare chosen to minimize nontrivialmultiplications while maintainingorthonormality.Theremaining rows form a basis for the orthogonal complement of the space spanned by the four rows already treated. It is a basis which requires no nontrivialmultiplications. It canbe shown that SS has the sequency property. Equation (9) can be generalized to give the slant matrix of order N ( n = 2, 7~ = 3 , .) in termsof the slant matrix of order N / 2 by the following recursive relation:

or by the formulas

Fig. 3 contains a plot of the slant-transform basis vectors of S ~represented as waveforms. S C. Slant-Transform Fast Computational Algorithm The fast computational algorithmof the slant transform is based on the matrix factorization corresponding to (10). A column vector multiplication by SN can beaccomplished by multiplying by the left factor of (10). Letting A N denote the number of additions and subtractions for

--

1
SN

- 1 ;

The matrix I ( N / 2 ) - 2 is the identity matrix of dimension ( N j 2 ) - 2 and the variouspartition blocks aredetermined by the same considerations as described above for 8 8 . The constants U N , b N may be computed from the recursive relation [7] :

S N , and M N the number of nontrivial multiplications in the above scheme, it can be shown that A N and M N satisfy the recursions A N = 2&12 N 4 and M N = ~ M N / , S. However, a more economical algorithm is obtained by a further factorization of (10) into

+ +

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1080

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON COMMUNICATIONS, AUGUST

1974

Multiplication the by middle factor involves only N additions subtractions, or while multiplication the by left factor involves only additions and 4 multiplications. 2 The recursions for the number of operations for SNare 1 N I ~ now AN = 2 ~ 4 ~ f 2 f 2 and MN = ~ M Ni 4. A special,more efficient factorization of S4 hasbeen discovered. With this factorization 1 0

-1

This rearrangement orders the rows in increasing order of sequency. If 8 8 is postmultiplied by a column data vector, the first and secondcomputationalpassesexecutethe multiplication by S4on the first and last halves. The third pass requires 8 additions or subtractions and the fourth pass requires 2 additions and 4 multiplications. The total computation is 26 additions or subtractions and 12 multiplications. A flow chart of this computation is shown in Fig. 4. The decomposition of the general SN follows from repeated application of (12) [ll]. A total of N log2 N (N/2) - 2 additions subtractions and together with 2 N - 4 multiplications are required to compute the slant transform of an N-dimensional data vector. For purposes of comparison the N X N Hadamard transform requires N logz N additions or subtractions.

-1

1 1 STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF 1.
(13)
SLANT TRANSFORM

If S 4 is postmultiplied by a column data vector, the first computational pass requires 4 additions and subtractions while the second pass requires a similar number and 4 multiplications. Therefore A4 = 8, M4 = 4. With some rearrangement of rows and columns, (13) can be applied t o S to give S

The development of efficient quantization and coding requires an understanding of thestatisticalproperties of the transform domain samples. This section presents a derivation of the statistical mean and covariance of the slanttransformsamplesanddevelops models for their probability densities.

1 0

0 bs

0
US

0 0

0
1

0
0

0
1
0 -1

0
0 0 0.

0'
0
0 0

0 ; o
0 : - 1 0 :

0
0
0

0
C %

0
-bs

0
1 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0

0
0

0 0
0 0

0
0
0

1
1

0
-

PRATT

et al.:

IMAGE CODING

1081

WAVE

NUYBER

0
I

and P C are the adjacent pixel correlation factors. From (4) the mean and covariance of theslanttransform , samples can then be expressed as1
PR

E{S(u,v) 1
and

S(u,v) = C C F ( j J k ) S ( u J j ) S ( k J v ) (16)
j k

3
4

C8{u1Ju?1v1>v'2} =
j i jz
E1

CF{jlJj?jh,h}
kz

5
6

'x(ulJjl)x(klJvl)S(u2Jj2)X(k~,v~). (17)

7 8
9
IO I1

12

1 3
1 4

1 5

*
0 2 4 6 8 1012 1 4

If the image array is stationary, then as a result of the orthogonality of the kernel, 8(u,v) = 0, 2L:V # 0.

(1Sb)

d+Pb%=-

No closed form expression has been found for the covariance of the slant transformsamples, but the covariance may be computed as the two-dimensional slant transform of the function C(j1 - &,k1 - k , } if the original image field is stationary.

B. Probability Density Models

The probability density of slant transform samples is difficult to obtain since the probabilitydensity of the original image array is not usually well defined, and also, the slant transform representation is mathematically complex. However, since the transform operation forms a well behaved weighted sum over all of the pixels in the original image, one can evoke qualitative arguments based upon the central limit theorem [12] to determine reasonable probability density models for the transform domain samples. The transform domain sample S(0,O) is a nonnegative weighted sum of pixel values. Its histogram will generally follow the histogram of pixel values which is often modelcd by a Rayleigh density

Fig. 3. Slant-transform basis waveforms.

2 ( 8 a d d s n d 4 multiplies) 8 adds a 4 multiplies 2 4 addsand 1 multipliestotally 2

Fig. 4. Slant-transform of order 6 computational flowchart.

All other transform components are bipolar and posscss a zero mean. These components generally can be modeled by a Gaussian density

where u2(u,v) = form samples as obtained from (17).

2 O ; (uJv) (O,O) ('O) # C~(u,u,v,v) variance of the transis the

IV.SLANT-TRANSFORMMONOCHROME IMAGE CODING The basic premise of a monochrome image-transform coding system is that thetwo-dimensional transform of an image has an energy distribution more suitable to coding
Unless otherwise noted, the summation indices are 1 to N .

1082

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON COMMUNICATIONS, AUGUST

1974

than the spatial domain representation. As a result of the inherent pixel-to-pixel correlation of natural monochrome images, the energy in the transform domain tends to be clustered into a relatively small number of transform Reconstructed samples. Low magnitudetransform samples can be disINVERSE image CHANNEL * DECODER SLANT carded in an analog transmission system, or grossly quanf(i,k) TRANSFORM tized in a digital transmission system, without introducing f Error serious image degradation in order achieve a bandwidth to Fig. 5. Slant-transform monochrome-image coding system. reduction. Fig. 5 contains a block diagram of the slant-transform coding system for monochrome images. I n operation,a MAXIMUM ARIANCE V two-dimensional slanttransformistaken of the image ZONAL ILTER F pixels over the entire image, or repeatedly over subsections 4 : I S A M P L ER E D U C T I O N of the image, called blocks. The transform domain samples 4% are then operated upon by a sample selector that decides which samples are to be transmitted.For an analog communication system, the selected samples are distributed uniformly in time and transmitted by analog modulation, while for a digital communication link, selected samples the are quantized, coded, and transmitted in binary form. At the receiver the incoming data are decoded, and aninverse slant transform is performed to reconstruct the original image. There two are basic strategies of sample selection: zonal sampling and threshold sampling [l]. I n zonal sampling the reconstructionismadewithasubset of transform samples lying in certain pre-specified geometric zones-usually the low frequency coefficients. For analog transmission the amplitude of each component in thezone is transmitted. For digital transmission each component SLANT TRANSFORMA I in a zone is quantized and assigned a binary code word. 256 The number of quantization levels is usually made proportional to theexpected variance of the component, and the Fig. 6 . Zonal samplingmean-squareerrorperformance of image number of code bits made proportional to its expected transforms as a function of block size. probability of occurrence. In threshold samplingthe image reconstruction is made with a subset of the samples which w , w = S(u,v> T(u,v) ( u , j )S ( k , v ) . (22) S are larger than a specified threshold. Since the locations u v of the significant samples must be communicated, thresIt is then easily shown that the mean-square error expreshold sampling is usually employed only in digital links. The following $subsectionscontain an analysis of the sion can be written as slant-transform image-coding process for a zonal sample 1 Q = E { (S(u,v)Cl - T(u,v)1)2). (23) reductionsystemutilizinganalogtransmissionand for u v zonal and threshold coding systems over a digital link. In There are a number of zones that could logically be emall instances, a mean-square error performance criterion ployed for zonal sampling; for example, arectangular, 1 experiQ =7 E(CF(j,k) - @(j,WJ (21) elliptical, or triangular zone. Bothanalyticand j k mentalstudies [ll] haveindicated that the optimum is utilized. While it is known that this measure results in zone is the so-called maximumvariance zone in which some anomalies, it has proven reliable as a performance T(u,v) is chosen to be unity for those samples having the measurebetween differenttransformsand for variants largest variance as computed by (17) for a given covariof sampling and coding strategies. ance model of the original image. Fig. 6 contains a plot of the mean-square error of an imagewitha Markov A. Zonal Sampling process covariance as a function of block size for various The sample selection process for two zones. can be transformations. In this plot the 25 percent of the coeffianalyzedconveniently by defining atransformdomain cients with the largest variances were selected, and the sampling function T(u,v) which takes on the value one for remainder discarded. From the figure it is seen that the samples to be transmittedand zero for samples to be Karhunen-Loeve transform provides the best mean-square discarded. The reconstructed image then becomes error, while the slant transform results in only a slightly

cc

cc

cc

PRATT

et al.: IMAGE

CODING

1083

with a fixed number of levels and its amplitude is coded. It is necessary to code the position of each significant sample in the transform plane. A simple, but quite efficient, technique for position coding is to code the number of nonsignificant samples between significant samples. This schemc, called run length coding, can be implemented as follows. 1) The first sample along each line is coded regardless o f its magnitude. A position code word of all zeros or all ones a&ed to the amplitude provides a line synchronization code group. 2) The amplitude of the second run length code word is the coded amplitude of the next significant sample. The position code is the binary count of the number of samples B. Zonal Coding of the significant samplefrom the previous significant In the zonal coding system a set of zones is established sample. in each transform block. Transform samples in each zone 3) If a significant sample is not encountered after are then quantized with the same number of quantization scanning the maximum run length of samples, the position levels which is set proportional to the expected variance and amplitude code bits are set t o all ones to indicate a of the transform coefficients. For a constant word length maximum run length. code, N ~ ( u , v code bits are assigned to each coefficient, ) The advantage of including a line synchronization code resulting in groupis that it becomes unnecessary to code the line Lc(u,v) = 2 N e ( u . w ) (24) number and, also, it prevents the propagation of channel errors over more than one line. quantization levels. A total of Fig. 13 contains simulation results for slant-transform Nn = C CNn(~,v) (25) threshold coding. As expected, since the coding process is u v adaptive,its performance is somewhat better than the bits are then required to code the picture. The bit assign- simpler zonal coding process. ment N B(u,v)for each coefficient is based upon a relation COLOR-IMAGE CODING of rate distortion theory [13], [14]. The number of bits V. SLANT-TRANSFORM is given by Fig. 14 containsa block diagram of atypicalslantgreater error. Also note that 'the rate of decrease in meansquareerror for larger block sizes becomes quite small after a block size of about 16 X 16. Fig. 7 shows reconstructions of images for maximum variance zonal sampling with the slant transform in 16 X 16 blocks. For purposes of comparison, a series of experiments were performed with the Hadamard, Haar, Fourier,and Karhunen-Loeve transforms,as shown in Fig. 8. It can be seen that the slant transform provides a better subjective quality reconstruction and smaller meansquare error than any other transform except the Iiarhunen-Loeve transform which does not possess afast algorithm. transform color-image coding system. In the system, the color image isrepresented bythree source tristimulus where VF(U,V) the variance of a transform coefficient is signals R ( j , k ) ,G ( j , k ) , B ( j , k ) that specify the red, green, and D is proportional to the mean-square quantization and blue content of a pixel at coordinate ( j , k ), according error. Fig. 9 illustrates a typical bit assignment for coding to the National Television System Commission (NTSC) in 16 X 16 blocks. Quantization decision and reconstrucreceiver phosphor primary system [16]. The source tion levels are selected to minimize the mean-square tristimulus signals are then converted to a new threequantization error for the probability density models of dimensional space, Y ( j , k ) , I ( j , k ) , and Q ( ,j,lc), which Section I11 using the Max quantization algorithm [l5]. specify the lumina,nce and the chrominance information With this quantization and coding strategy, it is possible of the image pixel according to the NTSC television transto predict the mean-square coding error for transform mission primary system. The conversion is defined by coding. Fig. 10 contains a plot of mean-square error as a function of block size for several transforms for coding 1.299 0.587 0.114] r ( j , k ) with an average of 1.5 bits/pixel. The figure indicates that the performance of the slant transform is quite close I ( j , k ) = 0.596 -0.274 -0.322 G ( j , k ) . (27) to the optimal Iiarhunen-Loeve transform. It is possible to achieve a slightly lower mean-square error for a given 0.211 -0.253 0.312 B(j,k) channel rate by employing Huffman coding of the quantized coefficients rather than constantword-length coding, The reason for transform coding the Y I Q signals rather but the coder will be much more complex to implement. than theR G B signals is that theY I Q signals are reasonFig. 11 contains simulation results of zonal coding with ably well uncorrelated, and most of thc color-image energy the slant transform in blocks of 16 X 16 pixels. A com- is compacted into the Y plane. This permits a more effiparison with other transforms is shown in Fig. 12. cient design of the quantizers. Table I compares the energy distribution of the R G B and Y I Q color planes. C. Threshold Coding The converted signals then individually undergo a twoIn a threshold coding system, each sample whose magni- dimensional slant transform. This results in three transtude is greater than a given threshold level is quantized form domain planes, & ( u , v ) , & ( u , v ) , & ( u , v ) , obtained
=

NS(u,v)

In [vF(u,v)] - In [Dl

(26)

W~]~'

1084

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON COMMUNICATIONS, AUGUST

1974

4:l sample reduction

6 :1 sample reduction

4:l sample reduction

6 :1 sample reduction

4:l sample reduction

6 :1 sample reduction

Fig. 7. Slant-transform zonal saillplillg in 16 X 16 pixel blocks, rulquantized transform.

PRATT

et al.:

IMAGE CODING

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Hadamard transform 4: 1 sample reduction

Fourier transform 4: 1 sample reduction

Haar transform 4: 1 sample reduction

Karhunen- Loeve transform 4: 1 sample reduction

Fig. 8. Hadamard, Fourier, Haar, and Karhunen-Loeve transform zonal sampling in 16 X 16 pixel blocks, unquantized transform.
5%

BIT RATE = 1. BITS/PIXEL 5 x, = .95

4%
~

v ,

= .95

r
0

E w 3%

8 8 8 7 7 7 5 5 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4

8 8 7 5 5 5 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 2

8 7 6 4 4 4 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2

7 5 4 3 2 2 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

7 5 4 2 2 2 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

7 5 4 2 2 2 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

5 3 3 2 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

5 3 3 2 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

4 3 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

4 3 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

4 3 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

4 3 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

4 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

4 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

4 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

4 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

a
a
0 3
u)

2%

5 - HAARTRANSFORM
I A

8 x 8 BLOCK 1:6 61

SIZE 64:64

Ih8x128

Fig. 9.

Typical bit assignments. for slant-transform zonal coding in 16 X 16 pixel blocks.

Fig. 10. Zonal coding mean-square performallce error transforms a a function of block size. s

of image

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1086

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON COMMUNICATIONS, AUGUST

1974

1. 5 bits/pixel

1.0 bit /pixel

1. 5 bits/pixel

1.0 bit /pixel

1. 5 bits/pixel
Fig. 11.

1. 0 bit /pixel

Slant-transform zonal coding in16 X 16 pixel blocks, quantized transform.

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PRATT

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Hadamard transform 1. 5 b i t s / p i x e l

Fourier transform 1. 5 b i t s / p i x e l

Haar transform 1. 5 bits /pixel

Karhunen-Loeve transform 1. 5 bits /pixel

Fig. 12. Hadamard, Fourier, Haar, and Karhunen-Loeve transfornl zonal coding in 16 X 16 pixel blocks, quantized transform.

from

C 8 Y l = C~lCYIC~l' C I = C~lC~ICSl' 31
[Bo]
=

(28a) (28b) (28c) Finally,

CslCQlCSl'

an inverse coordinate

where. [X] is the slant-transform matrix. Note that, since the coordinate conversion and spatial transformation are linear operations, their order may be reversed. Next, the transform samples are quantized the withnumber of quantum levels made proportional t o the expected variance of each pixel, and with the quantization level spacing allowed to be variable to minimize the mea\-square yuantization *error. quantized The samples & ( j , k ) , & ( j , k ) , and & ( j , k ) are then coded and transmitted over a possibly noisy channel. Atthe receiver the channel output is decoded, and inverse slant transforms are taken obtain to

reconstructed tristimulus si@a1s [(j,lc)] 1.000 0.956 0.621][P(j,k)]

~ ( ~ , k=) l.ooo

CPI = CSl'CSYlC~l VI = C~l'CSI1C~l cQ1= CSITC$QICSl.

(29a)
( 29b ) ( 29c )

conversion results inthe

-o.272

-o.647 1.703

T ( j , k ) . (30)
Q(j,k)

(j,k)

1.000 -1.106

The coordinate conversion from the R G B color space to the Y I Q color space can be considered along with the spatial slant transforms as a three-dimensional transformation. The coordinate conversion provides an energy compaction between slantspatial planes and color the

1088

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2. 0 bits/pixel

1. 1 5 bits/pixel

2 . 0 bits/pixel

2. 0 bits/pixel

1. 1 5 bits/pixel

Fig. 13. Slant-transform thresholdcoding in 16 X 16 pixelblocks, quantized transform.

PRATT

et al.:

IMAGE CODING

1089

Fig. 14. Slant-transform color-image coding system.

TABLE I ENERGY COMPACTION COORDINATE OF CONVERSIONS

Test Image Coordinate System RGB PerceZtage of a 45. 14 78. 32 85.81 31.09 51. 55 84.84 92.75 6.46 P e r c et a g e of a

Percentage of a2 19.45
4. 14 17. 54

35.41

GIRL

Y IQ K1K2K3 RG B

2.06

12.10

NUMBER

OF I BITS

Fig. 15. Quantization error for various color plane bit assignments.

17I 3 7 1.35 13.81

COUPLE

YIQ KIK2K3

3) Assign

0.79

Ly(u,v) = 2Ny(u,v)

(32a)

Lr(u;v)= 2 N 1 ( u s v ) (32b) transforms provide an energy compaction within the color L Q ( u , v )= 2N0(u'v) (32c) planes. Adopting this philosophy, the optimal threedimensional transform would be a Karhunen-Loeve quantization levels to each transform component where transformation which completely decorrelates the 3N2 the number of bits allotted to each component is made color-image components. It has been shown [17] that the proportional t o the logarithm of its variancecomputed Y I Q coordinate conversion provides almost as high an in 1). energy compaction for color images as does a Karhunen4) The total number of bits allotted to a color image Loeve color coordinate conversion. This result is verified is set a t by thecolor-image energy distribution of two color images N B = NBY Ner NBQ (33a) described in Table I. where I n order to optimally design the slant-transform image N N coder, it is necessary to specify some analytic measure of Nor = C N Y ( ~ , v ) (33b) color-image fidelity. Unfortunately, np standard fidelity u-1 v=l measures exist. As a rational alternative, the design proN N cedure selected has been to design the transform domain NBI = C C N I ( w ) (33c) quantization system to minimize the mean-square error u=l V a l between the Y I Q and f d c.olor planes as defined by N N

@ =

3N2 E { C Y ( j , k )- P(j,k>I2 C I ( j , k ) - f(j,k)I* +

~ V B= C C N Q ( w ) . Q
u=lv==1

(33d)

+ CQ(j,k) - d(i1k)l2I.(31)
Several variations of the quantization procedure have been investigated [lS]. The following has been found to be a highly effective implementation. 1) Model the row and column variancematrices of R G B as first-order Markov processes and compute the variances of the elements of Y I &. 2) Model the probability density of the constant basis vector component of F y by a Rayleigh density, and the probability densities of the other basis vector components of FYFIFQby Gaussian densities with variances computed in 1).

5) For a given value of N B , select trial values of N B Y , NBI, NBQ,then compute quantization levels from 3) , and
with the probability density models of 2), perform a variable spacing quantization of each transform component using the Max [15] quantization rule. 6) For representative color images, compute the mesnsquare error, and, by iterative search techniques, determine optimum bit allocations for transform planes. It should be noted that the above procedure need not be performed dynamically for every color image t o be coded. The optimization need only be performed fol typical color images to be coded to obtain a quantization scale which can be designed into the quantizer hardware. Fig. 15 contains a plot of the mean-square error versus

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1974

Fig. 16. Slant-transformcolor-image codingexample.

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PRATT

et al.:

IMAGE CODING

1091

(e)

n R
Fig. 1 6 .

A G
Cont'd.

Nnl for several values of Ne, and a fixed value Ne for the girl image. The optimum averagc bit allocation for this test image is found to be: NsY = 1.25, N s I = 0.55, NBQ= 0.20. Theoptimum scale does not change appreciably for other images or total bit allotments. A computer simulation has been performed to subjectivelyevaluate the performance of the slant-transform color-image coding system. Fig. 16(a) contains monochrome pictures of the red, green, and blue components of an original image of 2.56 X 256 pixels. Each component, of the original isquantized to 25.5 levels. It should noted that visually the R G B componentsare highly correlated. The corresponding Y I Q components in Fig. 16(b) appearmuch less correlated.Fig. 16(c) contains illustrations of the logarithm of the magnitude of each slant-transform planeof the color image for transformation in 16 X 16 pixel blocks to illustrate the spatialenergy compaction. In one of the simulationexperiments the transform coefficients, &, 81, were assigned code bits %Q such that Y, , Q were coded with an average of 1.2, 0.54, I
b ( b

and 0.26 bits/pixel, respectively. The corresponding reproductions of Y , I , Q and R, G', B are shown in Fig. 16(d) and (e). In this experiment the coding has been reduced from 24 bits/pixel to 2 bits/pixel. The R G B reconstructions rxhibit some degradation as a result of the coding process, but the visual effect of the degradation is much less visible inthe color reconstruction because of the spatial frequency limitations of the human visual system. Fig. 17 contains color images slant transform coded with 3 and 2 bits/pixel.

VI. ADDITIONAL TOPICS

The effect, of channel errors on slant-transform coded images has been investigated quite extensively [ll]. Studiesindicate that the coding techniqueisrelatively tolcrant t o channel errors. With zonal coding, for cxample, binary symmetric channel errors do not become subjectively noticeable until the error rate is reduced to about 10-3. Adaptive and semiadaptive quantization and coding

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1092

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AUGUST

1974

(b) 3 bits (a) /pixel

3 bits/pixel

( c ) 2 bits/pixel

(a) 2 bits/pixel

Fig. 17. Example of slant-t.ransform color-image coding.

techniques have been developed tested and by simulation for the slanttransform. Thesetechniques, which are somerhat more than the fixed quantization arid coding methods described in this paper, provide additional bandwidth reductions of about 2: 1 for the same degree of image quality.

REFERENCES
[1] P. A. Wintz, Transform picture coding,.Proc. Z E E E , Vol. 60, pp. 809-820, July 1972. 1 1 H, C. Andrews and w. K. pratt, <<Fourier 2 t&sform df images, in Conf. Rec. Hawaii Znt. Conf.SystemScience, Jan. 1968, pp. 677-679. [3] G. B. Anderson and T. S. Huang, Piecewise Fourier transformationbandwidth for picture compression, ZBEE Trans. Commun. Technol., vol. COM-19, pp. 133-140, Apr. 1971. , Correction to Piecewise Fourier transformation for picture bandwidth compression, ZEEE Trans. Commun. (Corresp.), vol. COM-20, pp. 488-492, June 1972. 141 K. Pratt, J. Kane,and H. 2. A n d r e 9 H d a m a r d transform image coding, Proc. I E E E , vol. 57, pp. 58-68, Jan. 1969. 1 1 J. 5 Woods and T. Huang, Picture bandwidth compression by linear transformation and block quantization, in Picture Randwidth ConLpression, T. S. Huang and 0. J. Tretiak, Ed. New York: Gordon and Breach, 1972, pp. 555-573.. [SI A. Habibi and P. A. Winta. Image coding by linear transformation and block quantization, I E E E Trans. Commun. Technol., vol. COM-19, pp. 50-62, Feb. 1971. 1 1 M. asto and p. A. Wintz;, Image coding by adaptive block 7 quantization, IEEE Trans. Commun. Technol., vol. COM-19, pp. 957-972, Dec. 1971. [SI H. c . Andrews, Computer T e c h n i w s in Image Processing. New York: Academic, 1970. [9] H. Enomoto and K. Shibata, transform Orthogonal coding

VII. SUMMARY
Slant-transform coding of monochrome and color images has proven to provide a substantial bandwidth reduction compared to conventional PcI\II coding with only a miniamount Of image degradation It has been found that the slant transformresultsina lower mean-square error for moderate sizeimageblocks as to other unitarytransformswithfastcomputational algorithms. Subjectively, it has been observed that the image quality of slant-transform coded images is somewhat higher than for images coded withotherfastcomputationalunitary transforms.

w. w.

s.

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PRATT
._j

et d . :

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1093

television sienals. T Electromaan. svst.en1 for~ ~ . _ _~.~ ~~~.~~ I E E E r a n s . . Cornpat., vol. EMC-13, pp- ll-ii, Aug. 1971. [IO] W. K. Pratt L. It. Welch, and W. H. Chen, Slant transform for image co)ding. in Proc. Sump. Application of IValsh Func. . .. tions, Mar. 197% [11] W. 1%. Chen, Slant transform image coding, University of Sonthern California. Imaee Processine Institute. Los Aneeles. USCEE 1i.ep. 441, May 1573. [la] A. Papoulis, Probability, Randonl. Variables, Stochastic and Processes. New York: McGraw-TTill, 1965. [13] J. Pearl, H. C. Andrews, and W. K. Pratt, Performance measures fortransform data coding, I E E E T r a n s . Cowmun. (Concise Papers), vol, COM-30, pp. 411-415, June 1972. (141 L. 11. llavisson, ltxte-distortion theory and application, 1972. Proc. I E E E , vol. 60, pp. 600-806, J ~ l y (151 J. Max, Qlmntizing for minimum distortion, I R E Truns. Inform. Theor?/,vol. IT-6, pp. 7-12, Mar. 1960. [16] D. G. Fink, Ed., Television Engineering Handbook. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1957. [li] W. K. Pratt, Spatial transform coding of color images, I E E E vol. COM-19, pp. 950-992, Uec. Trans. Cdmmzm. Technol., 1971. [lS] W. H. Chen and W. K. Pratt, Color image coding wit,h the slant transform, i l l Proc. Sytnp. Application of Walsh Functions, Apr. 1, 1973.
~~~

Wen-Hsiung Chen was born in Hsin-chu, Taiwan, onDecember 8, 1938. He received the B.S. degree fromtheNationalTaiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, in 1962, the M.S. degree from Kansas the State University, Manhattan, in 1966, and the Ph.D. degree from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, in 1973, all in electrical engineering. He joined the Electrical Engineering Department of the National Taiwan University &s a Teaching AssistanI t in 1963. From 1966 to 1968 he was emdoved withthe A&-Chalmers Company, Chicago, Ill., inthecapacity of Electrical Applications Engineer. He was a Teaching and Research Assistant at the ElectricalEngineering Department of the University of Southern California from 1968 to 1973, and was a Research Associate at the Image Processing Institute of USC in 1973. Since October 1973, he has been employed with Philco-Ford Corporation, Palo Alto, Calif., as a Senior Engineering Specialist working on communication system analysis and digital image processing.
~

. I - ~

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1 -

(a) color

girl

K.-L(e)color couple

(a) 3 bitslpi

(b) 3 bits/pixel

( e ) 2 bits, T :

(a)

2 bits/pixel

Example of slant,-t,ransform color-image coding.

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