2010 Second International conference on Computing, Communication and Networking Technologies

Analysis of Efficient Wavelet based Image

Compression Techniques
S.P. Raja1, Dr. A. Suruliandi2
1

PG Scholar, Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, Tirunelveli, Tamilnadu, India

2
Associate Professor, Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, Tirunelveli, Tamilnadu, India
avemariaraja@gmail.com
Abstract The objective of this paper is to implement the
concept of wavelet based image compression to gray scale images
using different techniques. The techniques involved in the
comparison process are SPIHT, EZW and SOFM. These
techniques are more efficient and provide a better quality in the
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 above techniques have
been successfully used in many applications. The techniques are
compared by using the performance parameters PSNR and
MSE. Images obtained with those techniques yield very good
results.
Keywords SPIHT, EZW, SOFM, Wavelet Image Compression.

I. INTRODUCTION

ncompressed multimedia data requires considerable

storage capacity and transmission bandwidth. The data
are in the form of graphics, audio, video and image. These
types of data have to be compressed during the transmission
process. Large amount of data cant be stored if there is low
storage capacity present. 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. There are two types of image compression is present.
They are lossy and lossless. Some of the compression
algorithms are used in the earlier days [3] and [4] and it was
one of the first to be proposed using wavelet methods [2]. For
still image compression, JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts
Group) is established. The JPEG technique is mainly based
upon the Discrete Cosine Transform [1]. Over the past few
years, a variety of powerful and sophisticated wavelet based
schemes for image compression have been developed and
implemented. The coders [8] provide a better quality in the
pictures.
Wavelet based image compression based on setpartitioning in hierarchical trees (SPIHT) [5] and [6] is a
powerful, efficient and yet computationally simple image
compression algorithm. It provides a better performance when
compared to the Embedded Zerotree wavelet [7] transform.

The objective of this paper is two fold. First, the images are
compressed by using the techniques SPIHT, EZW and SOFM.

978-1-4244-6589-7/10/$26.00 2010 IEEE

There are two passes involve in SPIHT and EZW
techniques. They are Sorting Pass and Refinement Pass.
Second, the image quality is measured objectively, using Peak
Signal-to-Noise Ratio (PSNR) and Mean Squared Error
(MSE). In SOFM [10], there are three types of layers are
present. They are Input layer, competitive layer and output
layer. The input layer accepts multidimensional input pattern
from the environment. In competitive layer, each neuron node
receives a sum of weighted inputs from the input layer. The
organization of the output layer is application dependent.
The rest of the paper is organized as follows. The SPIHT
algorithm is briefly discussed in Section II. The EZW
algorithm is briefly presented in Section III. The SOFM
algorithm is briefly discussed in Section IV. Experimental
results are discussed in Section V. In Section VI, the
performance evaluation of the two algorithms is discussed.
Finally, conclusion is discussed in Section VII.
II. SPIHT ALGORITHM
The SPIHT algorithm was introduced by Said [5] and
Pearlman [6]. It is a powerful, efficient and yet
computationally simple image compression algorithm. By
using this algorithm, the highest PSNR values for given
compression ratios for a variety of images can be obtained. It
provides a better comparison standard for all subsequent
algorithms. SPIHT stands for Set Partitioning in Hierarchical
Trees. SPIHT was designed for optimal progressive
transmission, as well as for compression. One of the important
features of SPIHT is that at any point during the decoding of
an image, the quality of the displayed image is the best that
can be achieved for the number of bits input by the decoder up
to that moment.
The wavelet coefficients can be referred as ci,j. In a
progressive transmission method, the decoder starts by setting
the reconstruction image to zero. It then inputs (encoded)
transform coefficients, decodes them, and uses them to
generate an improved reconstruction image. The main aim in
progressive transmission is to transmit the most important
image information first. SPIHT uses the mean squared error
(MSE) distortion measure.

---------- (1)
where, N is the total number of pixels. So the largest
coefficients contain the information that reduces the MSE
distortion.
A. SPIHT Coding
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)

H. Set the LIS to the coordinates of all the roots

(i, j)
H that have descendants.
2. Sorting pass:
2.1 for each entry (i, j) in the LIP do:
2.1.1 output Sn(i, j);
2.1.2 if Sn(i, j) = 1, move (i, j) to the LSP
and output the sign of ci,j ;
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 Sn (D(i, j)) = 1, then
for each (k, l)
O(i, j) do:
output Sn(k, l);
if Sn (k, l) = 1, add (k, l) to the LSP,
output the sign of ck,l;
if Sn(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, and go to step
2.2.2; else, remove entry (i, j) from the LIS;
2.2.3 if the entry is of type B, then
output Sn(L(i, j));
if Sn (L(i, j)) = 1, then
append each (k, l)
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 |ci,j|;
4. Loop: decrement n by 1 and go to step 2 if needed.
III. EZW ALGORITHM
The EZW algorithm was one of the first and powerful
algorithms based on Wavelet based Image compression. The
other algorithms were created depending upon the
fundamental concepts of EZW. The EZW algorithm was

introduced in the paper of Shapiro [7]. 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 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 then 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) |ci,j|/2, where ci,j are the wavelet
coefficients.
2. Significance map coding: Scan all the coefficients in a
predefined way and output a symbol when |ci,j | > T. When the
decoder inputs this symbol, it sets ci,j = 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.
A. EZW Coding
A wavelet coefficient ci,j is considered insignificant with
respect to the current threshold T if |ci,j| = T. The zerotree data
structure can be constructed from the following experimental
result: If a wavelet coefficient at a coarse scale (i.e., high in
the image pyramid) is insignificant with respect to a given
threshold T, then all of the coefficients of the same orientation
in the same spatial location at finer scales (i.e., located lower
in the pyramid) are very likely to be insignificant with respect
to T. In each iteration, all the coefficients are scanned in the
order shown in Fig. 1. This guarantees that when a node is
visited, all its parents will already have been scanned.
Each coefficient visited in the scan is classified as a
zerotree root (ZTR), an isolated zero (IZ), positive significant
(POS), or negative significant (NEG). A zerotree root is a
coefficient that is insignificant and all its descendants (in the
same spatial orientation tree) are also insignificant. Such a
coefficient becomes the root of a zerotree. It is encoded with a
special symbol (denoted by ZTR). When the decoder inputs a
ZTR symbol, it assigns a zero value to the coefficients and to
all its descendants in the spatial orientation tree. Their values
get improved in subsequent iterations. The Fig. 2 illustrates
this classification.

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.
A. SOFM Coding
The SOFM algorithm consists of four basic steps. It is
shown in the following.
Fig. 1 Scanning a Zerotree

1. Initialization: Choose random values for the initial weight

vector cj(0).cj(0) must be different for j=1,2,3k.
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.

-----------------(2)
4. Updating:
Fig. 2 Classifying a Coefficient

Two lists are used by the encoder (and also by the

decoder, which works in lockstep) in the scanning process.
The dominant list contains the coordinates of the coefficients
that have not been found to be significant. They are stored in
the order scan, by pyramid levels, and within each level by
subbands. The subordinate list contains the magnitudes of the
coefficients that have been found to be significant. Each list is
scanned once per iteration. An iteration consists of a dominant
pass followed by a subordinate pass. In the dominant pass,
coefficients from the dominant list are tested for significance.
If a coefficient is found significant, then i) its sign is
determined, ii) it is classified as either POS or NEG, iii) its
magnitude is appended to the subordinate list, and iv) it is set
to zero in memory (in the array containing all the wavelet
coefficients). The last step is done so that the coefficient does
not prevent the occurrence of a zerotree in subsequent
dominant passes at smaller thresholds. At the end of the
subordinate pass, the encoder sorts the magnitudes in the
subordinate list in decreasing order. The encoder stops the
loop when a certain condition is met and the decoder stops
decoding when the maximum acceptable distortion has been
reached.

-----------------(3)
Continue until noticeable changes are observed.
V. EXPERIMENTS
The images Lena, Baboon, Cameraman, Peppers, Barbara
and Bridge are used for the experiments. The results of
experiments are used to find the PSNR (Peak Signal to Noise
Ratio) values and MSE (Mean Square Error) values for the
reconstructed images. The results that got by using SPIHT
technique are shown in the Fig. 3 and Fig. 4. Some of the best
results highest PSNR values for given compression ratios for
the sample images have obtained with SPIHT.

Fig. 3 SPIHT Compression of Lena, Baboon & Cameraman image

IV. SOFM ALGORITHM

Self-Organizing Feature Maps [10] also known as
Kohonen maps were first introduced by von der Malsburg and
in its present form by Kohonen. This SOFM algorithm is
based on competitive learning. Here, neurons are placed at the
nodes of a lattice. Neurons become selectively tuned to

Fig. 4 SPIHT Compression of Peppers, Barbara & Bridge image

SPIHT provides better results when compared to the

EZW. The Fig. 5 and Fig. 6 show the results that got by using
the EZW technique. EZW is used to produce a fully
embedded bit stream. The main features of EZW are discrete
wavelet transform, Zerotree coding of wavelet coefficients
and successive approximation quantization. Here, embedding
is accomplished via a series of decisions that distinguish the
reconstructed image from the null image.

images compressed by SPIHT are tabulated in Table 1. The

PSNR value is calculated by using the following formula.

-------------(4)
The SPIHT method is not a simple extension of
traditional methods for image compression, and represents an
important advance in the field. The method deserves special
attention because it provides highest image quality,
progressive image transmission, fully embedded coded file,
Simple quantization, exact bit rate coding and Error
protection. Furthermore, its embedded coding process proved
to be effective in a broad range of reconstruction qualities.
TABLE I
PSNR & MSE VALUES FOR SPIHT

Fig. 5 EZW Compression of Lena, Baboon & Cameraman image

Fig. 6 EZW Compression of Peppers, Barbara & Bridge image

The objective of the learning algorithm for a SOFM

neural network is formation of a feature map which captures
the essential characteristics of the p-dimensional input data
and maps then on an l-D feature space. The learning algorithm
consists of two essential aspects of the map formation,
namely, competition and cooperation between neurons of the
output lattice. The results that got by using SOFM technique
are shown in Fig. 7 and Fig. 8. The images provide less
quality when compare to the other techniques.

Image

PSNR

MSE

Lena

39.85

6.7242

Cameraman

35.56

18.0679

Bridge

29.78

68.4667

Barbara

36.62

14.1501

Peppers

37.81

10.7597

Baboon

28.53

91.2663

The main features of EZW include compact

multiresolution representation of images by discrete wavelet
transformation, zerotree coding of the significant wavelet
coefficients providing compact binary maps, successive
approximation quantization of the wavelet coefficients,
adaptive multilevel arithmetic coding, and capability of
meeting an exact target bit rate with corresponding rate
distortion function (RDF). This algorithm may not yield
optimal distortion but it does provide a practical and general
high compression algorithm for a variety of image classes.
TABLE II
PSNR & MSE VALUES FOR EZW

Image

Fig. 7 SOFM Compression of Lena, Baboon & Cameraman image

Fig. 8 SOFM Compression of Peppers, Barbara & Bridge image

VI. PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS

The above algorithms are compared and the results are
shown in the figures. The PSNR and MSE values for the

PSNR

MSE

Lena

26.21

155.6583

Cameraman

24.43

234.2509

Bridge

23.68

278.6882

Barbara

22.92

332.1073

Peppers

23.59

89.8794

Baboon

22.19

134.7829

The PSNR and MSE values for the images compressed by

EZW are tabulated in Table 2. SOFM can greatly reduce
computational complexity. It provides new ways of
associating related data. The PSNR and MSE values for the
images compressed by SOFM are tabulated in Table 3. In
SOFM the error rate may be unacceptable.
TABLE III
PSNR & MSE VALUES FOR SOFM

Image

PSNR

MSE

Lena

11.5208

4.5814e+003

Cameraman

11.5090

4.5939 e+003

Bridge

11.5548

4.5457 e+003

Barbara

11.3605

4.7537 e+003

Peppers

11.5544

4.5461 e+003

Baboon

11.2623

4.8625e+003

45
40
35

PSNR

30

SPIHT

25

EZW

20

SOFM

15
10
5
0
1

Fig. 9 Comparison of PSNR values for SPIHT, EZW & SOFM

350
300

MSE

250
200

SPIHT
EZW

150
100
50

by a SOFM. The Arithmetic coding with SPIHT algorithm

will be added in the future.
REFERENCES
[1] Ahmed, N., Natarajan, T., and Rao, K. R. Discrete Cosine Transform,
IEEE Trans. Computers, vol. C-23, Jan. 1974, pp. 90-93.
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wavelet transform. IEEE Trans. Image Proc., Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 205-220,
1992.
[3] G.M. Davis, A. Nosratinia. Wavelet-based Image Coding: An Overview.
Applied and Computational Control, Signals and Circuits, Vol. 1, No. 1,
1998.
[4] S. Mallat. A Wavelet Tour of Signal Processing. Academic Press, New
York, NY, 1998.
[5] A. Said, W.A. Pearlman. Image compression using the spatial-orientation
tree. IEEE Int. Symp. on Circuits and Systems, Chicago, IL, pp. 279-282,
1993.
[6] A. Said, W.A. Pearlman. A new, fast, and efficient image codec based on
set partitioning in hierarchical trees. IEEE Trans. on Circuits and Systems for
Video Technology, Vol. 6, No. 3, pp. 243-250, 1996.
[7] Shapiro J.M. Embedded image coding using zerotrees of wavelet
coefficients. IEEE Trans. Signal Proc., Vol. 41, No. 12, pp. 3445{3462,
1993.
[8] Vetterli, M. and Kovacevic, J. Wavelets and Subband Coding,
Englewood
Cliffs,
NJ,
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Hall,
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http://cm.belllabs.com/who/jelena/Book/home.html.
[9] J.S. Walker. A lossy image codec based on adaptively scanned wavelet
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0
1

AUTHORS

Fig. 10 Comparison of MSE values for SPIHT, EZW

The comparison of SPIHT, EZW and SOFM by using

PSNR and MSE are shown in Fig. 9 and Fig. 10. The
compression ratio is taken as 2:1 to reduce the time needed for
subjective testing.
VII. CONCLUSION
In this paper, the results of different wavelet-based image
compression techniques are compared. The effects of different
wavelet functions, filter orders, number of decompositions,
image contents and compression ratios are examined. 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. These techniques are successfully tested in many
images. 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. The EZW algorithm is coupled
with the power of multiresolution analysis, yields significant
compression with little quality loss. Because of the inherent
multiresolution nature, wavelet-based coders facilitate
progressive transmission of images thereby allowing variable
bit rates. The above algorithms can be used to compress the
image that is used in the web applications. SOFM can reduce
the computational complexity. It has no need of supervised
learning rules. Many problems cant be effectively represented

Mr. S.P. Raja completed his B.Tech

Information Technology from Dr.SACOE, Tiruchendur,
Tamilnadu, India. He is a Life Member of Indian Society for
Technical Education. He is doing M.E (CSE) from MS
University, Tirunelveli, Tamilnadu, India. His research
interest is Image Processing. He has published nine papers in
National Conferences, fifteen papers in International
Conferences and two papers in International Journals.
Currently he is working as a Lecturer in the Department of
Information Technology, National College of Engineering,
Tirunelveli, Tamilnadu, India.

Dr. A. Suruliandi received his Ph.D in 2009

from MS University, Tirunelveli, Tamilnadu, India in the area

of classification of remotely sensed images. He received his

M.E (CSE) degree in 2000 from MS University and B.E
(ECE) from CIT, Coimbatore in 1987. He is currently an
Associate Professor in MS University, Tirunelveli,
Tamilnadu, India. His major research interests are Remote
Sensing, Image Processing, Pattern Recognition, Data mining,
and Data compression. He has published many papers in
National, International conferences and Journals.