Institute for Data Analysis and Visualization

We compare several wavelet-based coders in the encoding of still images. Two image quality metrics are used in our comparative study: a perception-based, quantitative picture quality scale and the conventional distortion measure, peak signal-to-noise ratio. Coders are evaluated in the rate-distortion sense. The effects of different wavelets, quantizers, and encoders are assessed individually. Two representative wavelets, three quantizers, three encoders, and the combinations of these components are compared. Our results provide insight into the design issues of optimizing wavelet coders, as well as a good reference for application developers to choose from an increasingly large family of wavelet coders for their applications.