METHODS FOR REDUCING THE BLOCKING ARTIFACT OBSERVED IN IMAGES WHICH HAVE BEEN COMPRESSED USING TRANSFORM CODING ANDVECTOR QUANTIZATION

THIS IS A PROPOSAL TO STUDY TECHNIQUES TO REDUCE THE BLOCKING ARTIFACT WHICH IS OBSERVED WHEN CODING IMAGES USINGEITHER TRANSFORM TECHNIQUES OR VECTOR QUANTIZATION (VQ). THIS ARTIFACT, WHICH WE CALL THE TILE EFFECT, IS OBSERVED ESPECIALLY IN SMOOTH REGIONS OF A RECONSTRUCTED IMAGE AFTER MODERATE TO HIGH COMPRESSION. OUR APPROACH TO SOLVE THIS PROBLEM LIES IN A FUNDAMENTALLY DIFFERENT WAY OF MODELLING THE IMAGE AS THE SUM OF TWO SOURCES. THIS LEADS IN A VERY NATURAL WAY TO A REDUCTION OF THIS TILE EFFECT. THIS RESEARCH WILL ADDRESS IMAGE DATA COMPRESSION ALGORITHM DESIGN WITHIN THIS FRAMEWORK AND THEN CONCENTRATE ON TECHNIQUES TO ACHIEVE VERY HIGH COMPRESSION RATIOS WHILE REDUCING THE TILE EFFECT. WITH A SUCCESSFUL COMPLETION OF THIS RESEARCH WE CAN EXPECT TO SEE MORE EFFICIENT IMAGING SYSTEMS IN THE SENSE OFREDUCED STORAGE AND TRANSMISSION TIME AND/OR IMPROVED IMAGE QUALITY.