Edge-preserving image compression using adaptive lifting wavelet transform

In this paper, a novel 2-D adaptive lifting wavelet transform is presented. The proposed algorithm is designed to further reduce the high-frequency energy of wavelet transform, improve the image compression efficiency and preserve the edge or texture of original images more effectively. In this paper, a new optional direction set, covering the surrounding integer pixels and sub-pixels, is designed. Hence, our algorithm adapts far better to the image orientation features in local image blocks. To obtain the computationally efficient and coding performance, the complete processes of 2-D adaptive lifting wavelet transform is introduced and implemented. Compared with the traditional lifting-based wavelet transform, the adaptive directional lifting and the direction-adaptive discrete wavelet transform, the new structure reduces the high-frequency wavelet coefficients more effectively, and the texture structures of the reconstructed images are more refined and clear than that of the other methods. The peak signal-to-noise ratio and the subjective quality of the reconstructed images are significantly improved.