Lossy to lossless image coding based on wavelets using a complex allpass filter

Wavelet-based image coding has been adopted in the international standard JPEG 2000 for its efficiency. It is well-known that the orthogonality and symmetry of wavelets are two important properties for many applications of signal processing and image processing. Both can be simultaneously realized by the wavelet filter banks composed of a complex allpass filter, thus, it is expected to get a better coding performance than the conventional biorthogonal wavelets. This paper proposes an effective implementation of orthonormal symmetric wavelet filter banks composed of a complex allpass filter for lossy to lossless image compression. First, irreversible real-to-real wavelet transforms are realized by implementing a complex allpass filter for lossy image coding. Next, reversible integer-to-integer wavelet transforms are proposed by incorporating the rounding operation into the filtering processing to obtain an invertible complex allpass filter for lossless image coding. Finally, the coding performance of the proposed orthonormal symmetric wavelets is evaluated and compared with the D-9/7 and D-5/3 biorthogonal wavelets. It is shown from the experimental results that the proposed allpass-based orthonormal symmetric wavelets can achieve a better coding performance than the conventional D-9/7 and D-5/3 biorthogonal wavelets both in lossy and lossless coding.