Image coding with ridge and valley primitives

A high-compression image coding scheme is presented, based on thread-like "Ridge" and "Valley" primitives. The use of these primitives is motivated by their success in economically representing image structure. The original image is sampled along the primitives, using a fractal yardstick method to determine sample spacing. The primitives themselves are compressed using vector coding and chain coding. Reconstruction at the receiver is a scattered data interpolation problem, solved here using C/sup 0/ natural neighbor interpolation. Results are presented showing data rates between 0.1 and 0.4 b/pixel, the degradations are discussed, and prospects for improvement outlined. >

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