On the use of independent component analysis for image compression

This paper addresses the use of independent component analysis (ICA) for image compression. Our goal is to study the adequacy (for lossy transform compression) of bases learned from data using ICA. Since these bases are, in general, non-orthogonal, two methods are considered to obtain image representations: matching pursuit type algorithms and orthogonalization of the ICA bases followed by standard orthogonal projection.Several coder architectures are evaluated and compared, using both the usual SNR and a perceptual quality measure called picture quality scale. We consider four classes of images (natural, faces, fingerprints, and synthetic) to study the generalization and adaptation abilities of the data-dependent ICA bases. In this study, we have observed that: bases learned from natural images generalize well to other classes of images; bases learned from the other specific classes show good specialization. For example, for fingerprint images, our coders perform close to the special-purpose WSQ coder developed by the FBI. For some classes, the visual quality of the images obtained with our coders is similar to that obtained with JPEG2000, which is currently the state-of-the-art coder and much more sophisticated than a simple transform coder.We conclude that ICA provides a excellent tool for learning a coder for a specific image class, which can even be done using a single image from that class. This is an alternative to hand tailoring a coder for a given class (as was done, for example, in the WSQ for fingerprint images). Another conclusion is that a coder learned from natural images acts like an universal coder, that is, generalizes very well for a wide range of image classes.