International Journal of Electronics, Communication & Instrumentation Engineering Research and Development (IJECIERD) ISSN 2249-684X Vol.

3, Issue 1, Mar 2013, 9-14 TJPRC Pvt. Ltd.,

OPTIMUM DCT IMAGE COMPRESSION USING NEURAL NETWORKS ARBITRATION

S.S. TAMBOLI1 & V.R.UDUPI2
1

Assistant Professor, Department of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering, Annasaheb Dange College of Engineering & Technology, Ashta, India

Professor, Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Gogte Institute of Technology, Belgaum, Karnataka, India

ABSTRACT
Image compression using Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) is one of the simplest commonly used compression methods. The quality of compressed images, however, is marginally reduced at higher compression ratios due to the loss nature of DCT compression, thus, the need for finding an optimum DCT compression ratio. An ideal image compression system must yield high quality compressed images with good compression ratio, while maintaining minimum time cost. Neural networks perform well in simulating non-linear relationships. This paper suggests that a neural network could be trained to recognize an optimum ratio for DCT compression of an image upon presenting the image to the network. The neural network associates the image intensity with its compression ratios in search for an optimum ratio. Experimental results suggest that a trained neural network can simulate such non-linear relationship and thus can be successfully used an intelligent optimum image compression system.

KEYWORDS: Optimum DCT Image Compression, Neural Networks Arbitration, Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) INTRODUCTION
Data compression in multimedia applications has become more vital lately where compression methods are being rapidly developed to compress large data files such as images. Efficient methods usually succeed in compressing images, while retaining high image quality and marginal reduction in image size. Recently the use of Wavelet Transforms and Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) for image compression was investigated [1]. The usability and efficiency of these methods depend on the application areas that require either high transmission rate or high quality decompression. Lossless compression algorithm provides a compression which, when decompressed the exact original data can be obtained. This is the case when binary data such as executables and documents are compressed. On the other hand, images might not be reproduced 'exactly', but an approximation of the original image is enough for most purposes as long as the error between the original and the compressed image is tolerable. The general purpose of compression systems is to compress images, but the result is less than optimal. Although the use of Wavelet Transforms was shown to be more superior to DCT when applied to image compression, some of the finer details in the image can be sacrificed for the sake of saving a little more bandwidth or storage space. This also means that lossy compression techniques such as DCT can be used in this area. Image compression using DCT is a simple compression method that was first applied in 1974 [2]. It is a popular transform used for some of the image compression standards in lossy compression methods. The disadvantage of using DCT image compression is the high loss of quality in compressed images, which is more notable at higher compression ratios. Recent work on finding optimum compression suggested criteria that was based on visual inspection and computed analysis of the reconstructed images [1].

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Visual inspection and observation by humans is an empirical analysis that involves a number of people who observe the smoothness and edge continuity of certain objects within reconstructed images and then decide which compression ratio provides a compromise between high compression ratio and minimal loss of quality [1],[2]. Artificial neural networks implementations in image processing applications has marginally increased in recent years. Image compression using DCT and a neural network was suggested previously [4]. More recently, different image compression techniques were combined with neural network classifier for various applications [5], [6], [7]. However, some of these works have suggested using a neural network to determine optimum compression ratio. The aim of the work presented within this paper is to develop an intelligent optimum image compression system using DCT compression and a neural network. The novel method suggests that a trained neural network can learn the nonlinear relationship between the intensity (pixel values) of an image and its optimum compression ratio. Based on our hypothesis, a trained neural network could recognize the optimum DCT compression ratio of an image upon its presentation to the neural network. The development and implementation of this system uses 60 images of various objects, contrasts and intensities.

TECHNICAL PRELIMINARIES
Neural Networks Neural networks are composed of simple elements operating in parallel. These elements are inspired by biological nervous systems. As in nature, the network function is determined largely by the connections between elements. We can train a neural network to perform a particular function by adjusting the values of the connections (weights) between elements. Commonly neural networks are adjusted, or trained, so that a particular input leads to a specific target output. Such a situation is shown below. There, the network is adjusted, based on a comparison of the output and the target, until the network output matches the target. Typically many such input/target pairs are needed to train a network.Neural networks have been trained to perform complex functions in various fields, including pattern recognition, identification, classification, and speech, vision, and control systems. Today neural networks can be trained to solve problems that are difficult for conventional computers or human beings. Throughout the toolbox emphasis is placed on neural network paradigms that build up to or are themselves used in engineering, financial, and other practical applications. DCT (Discrete Cosine Transform) The discrete cosine transform (DCT) is a technique for converting a signal into elementary frequency components. It is widely used in image compression. It is simplest method for lossy Image compression belongs to orthogonal coding.

DATASET INFORMATION
The development and implementation of the proposed intelligent optimum image compression system uses 60 images from our database that have different objects, brightness and contrast. DCT compression has been applied to 50 images using 9 compression ratios (10%, 20%, 30% 90%) as shown in an example in Fig. 1.

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Figure 1: An Original Image and its DCT Compression at Nine Ratios The optimum DCT compression ratios for the 50 images were determined using the optimum compression criteria based on visual inspection of the compressed images as suggested in [3], thus providing 50 images with known optimum compression ratios and 10 images with unknown optimum compression ratios. The image database is then organized into three sets: Training Image Set: contains 30 images with known optimum compression ratios which are used for the neural network within the intelligent system. Examples of training image set are shown in Fig. 2. Testing Image Set 1 Contains 20 images with known optimum compression ratios which are used to test and evaluate the efficiency of the trained neural network. Examples of these testing images are shown in Fig. 3.

Figure 2: Training Image Set-1 Testing Image Set 2 Contains 10 images with unknown optimum compression ratios which are used to further test the trained neural network within the intelligent system.

Figure 3: Testing Image Set-2

IMPLEMENTATION SETUP
The intelligent optimum image compression system uses a supervised neural network based on the back propagation learning algorithm, due to its implementation simplicity, and the availability of sufficient input /target database for

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training this supervised learner. The neural network consist of an input layer with 4096 neurons, one hidden layer with 80 neurons and an output layer with 9 neurons. Training the neural network uses 30 images which are grey and of size (256x256) pixels. Using Adobe Photoshop the size of each whole image is initially reduced to (64x64) pixels prior to presenting the whole image to the neural network using the one-pixel per- node approach, thus resulting in 4096 pixel values per image. Further reduction to the size of the images was attempted in order to reduce the number of input layer neurons and consequently the training time, however, meaningful neural network training could not be achieved thus, the use of whole images of size (64x64) pixels. The hidden layer of the neural network contains 80 neurons which assures meaningful training while keeping the time cost to a minimum. The output layer has nine neurons according to the number of possible compression ratios (10% - 90%). During the learning phase, initial random weights of values between 0.45 and -0.45 were used. The learning coefficient and the momentum rate were adjusted during various experiments in order to achieve the required minimum error value of 0.001; which was considered as sufficient for this application

Figure 4: Topology of Neural Network Fig.4 shows the topology of this neural network within the intelligent image compression system.

RESULTS
The experimentation was carried out on Intel Core I3 Machine with 4 GB Ram, Windows 7 Operating Systems and MATLAB Software. Table 1 lists the final parameters of the successfully trained neural network. Fig. 5 shows the error graph versus iterations during the neural network training. The evaluation of the training and testing results was performed using two measurements: the recognition rate and the accuracy rate. Table 1: Trained Neural Network Final Parameters Input Neurons Hidden Neurons Output Neurons Learning Coefficient Momentum Rate Minimum Error Iterations Training Time Run time 4096 80 9 0.004 0.50 0.001 Approx. 300000 6 hrs 0.03 seconds

The hypothesis which is presented within this paper suggests that a trained neural network can learn the nonlinear relationship between the image intensity (pixel values) and its optimum compression ratio. This relationship can be seen in Fig. 7 which shows the different values of optimum compression ratios for the database images.

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Figure 5: Error versus Iteration Graph during Network Training

Figure 6: Original Image and its Optimum DCT Compression

orignal image

60% compression

Figure 7: Relationship between Images and Optimum Compression Ratios

CONCLUSIONS
A novel method to intelligent image compression is proposed in this paper. The method uses DCT compression with nine compression ratios and a supervised neural network that learns to associate the grey image intensity (pixel values) with a single optimum compression ratio. The aim of an optimum ratio is to combine high compression ratio with good quality Compressed image. The proposed intelligent system was developed and implemented using 60 images of various objects, contrasts and intensities. The neural network within the system learnt to associate the 30 training images with their predetermined optimum compression ratios within 103 minutes.

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Once trained, the neural could recognize the optimum compression ratio of an image within 0.03 seconds upon presenting the image to the network. The trained system can use four minimum accuracy levels which are determined depending on the application. Future work will include the implementation of this intelligent system using bi-orthogonal wavelet transform compression which produces higher quality compressed images, and thus creates a more challenging task for the neural network to recognize.

REFERENCES
1. Khashman and K. Dimililer, Comparison Criteria for Optimum Image Compression, Proceeding of the IEEE International Conference on Computer as a Tool EUROCON05, vol. 2, 2005, pp. 935-938. 2. N. Ahmed, T. Natarajan, and K.R. Rao, On Image Processing and a Discrete Cosine Transform, IEEE Transactions Computers Cvol. 23, no. 1, 1974, pp. 90-93. 3. 4. Jahne, Digital Image Processing. New York: Springer-Verlag, ch.1, 2002. K.S. Ng and L.M. Cheng, Artificial Neural Network for Discrete Cosine Transform and Image Compression, Proceedings of the fourth international conference on Document Analysis and Recognition, vol. 2, 1997, pp. 675678. 5. M. Liying and K. Khashayar, Adaptive Constructive Neural Networks Using Hermite Polynomials for Image Compression, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Springer-Verlag, vol. 3497, 2005, pp. 713-722. 6. Karlik, Medical Image Compression by Using Vector Quantization Neural Network, ACAD Sciences press in Computer Science, vol. 16, no. 4, 2006 pp., 341-348. 7. Y. Zhou., C. Zhang, and Z. Zhang, Improved Variance-Based Fractal Image Compression Using Neural Networks, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Springer-Verlag, vol. 3972, 2006, pp.575-580 8. Adnan Khashman and Kamil Dimililer, Neural Networks Arbitration for Optimum DCT Image Compression, EUROCON 2007 The International Conference on Computer as a Tool