Listless block-tree set partitioning algorithm for very low bit rate embedded image compression

This paper presents a listless implementation of wavelet based block tree coding (WBTC) algorithm of varying root block sizes. WBTC algorithm improves the image compression performance of set partitioning in hierarchical trees (SPIHT) at lower rates by efficiently encoding both inter and intra scale correlation using block trees. Though WBTC lowers the memory requirement by using block trees compared to SPIHT, it makes use of three ordered auxiliary lists. This feature makes WBTC undesirable for hardware implementation; as it needs a lot of memory management when the list nodes grow exponentially on each pass. The proposed listless implementation of WBTC algorithm uses special markers instead of lists. This reduces dynamic memory requirement by 88% with respect to WBTC and 89% with respect to SPIHT. The proposed algorithm is combined with discrete cosine transform (DCT) and discrete wavelet transform (DWT) to show its superiority over DCT and DWT based embedded coders, including JPEG 2000 at lower rates. The compression performance on most of the standard test images is nearly same as WBTC, and outperforms SPIHT by a wide margin particularly at lower bit rates.