A Memory Efficient Listless SPECK (MLSK) Image Compression Algorithm for Low Memory Applications

Use of data dependent lists to store state information during coding, SPECK (set partitioned embedded block coding) image coding algorithm requires large run-time memory, and thereby making SPECK image coder unsuitable for memory constrained applications. In this paper, a memory efficient and fast version of SPECK coder is proposed. The proposed coder uses fixed size static memory, which stores markers to facilitate coding. Replacement of data dependent lists with small fixed size static memory reduces the memory access time, thereby making it faster than the original SPECK. The proposed coder is memory efficient and requires only one bit per pixel memory (12.5% of memory required to store image) to store markers, while coding efficiency and scalability property of the SPECK algorithm is retained thereby making it suitable for resource constrained portable hand held device and wireless sensor networks. Keywords: Image coding, wavelet, SPECK, Listless image coder, memory efficient image coder, Block coder