SUBBAND CODING OF SUPER HIGH DEFINITION IMAGES USING ENTROPY CODED VECTOR QUANTIZATION

This paper discusses the bit-rate compression of super high definition still images with subband coding. Super high definition (SHD) images with more than 2048 x 2048 pixels of resolution are introduced as the next generation imaging system beyond HDTV. In order to develop bit-rate reduction algorithms, an image evaluation system for super high definition images is assembled. Signal characteristics are evaluated and the optimum subband analysis/synthesis system for the SHD images is clarified. A scalar quantization combined with run-length and Huffman coding is introduced as a conventional subband coding algorithm, and its coding performance is evaluated for SHD images. Finally, new coding algorithms based on block Huffman coding and entropy coded vector quantization are proposed. SNR improvement of 0.5 dB and 1.0 dB can be achieved with the proposed block Huffman coding and the vector quantization algorithm, respectively.