An efficient embedded zerotree wavelet image codec based on intraband partitioning

Embedded zerotree wavelet (EZW) coding, introduced by J. M. Shapiro and improved in the SPIHT codec of A. Said and W. A. Pearlman, is a very effective wavelet image coding method. One main concept in EZW and SPIHT is the exploitation of self-similarity across different scales of the image wavelet transform to effectively compress the image data. This paper presents an efficient and fully embedded zerotree wavelet image codec that achieves a comparable and even better performance than SPIHT by exploiting only the selfsimilarity within the scales (intraband self-similarity). The proposed algorithm results in a simpler implementation and in a more efficient representation of the ordering information than SPIHT. Coding results are presented to illustrate the performance of the proposed embedded wavelet image codec.