IEEEICET 2006

2nd International Conference on Emerging Technologies

Peshawar, Pakistan 13-14 November 2006

Image Compression with Different Types of

Wavelets
Javed Akhtar, Dr Muhammad Younus Javed
Department of Computer Engineering, College of E&ME
National University of Sciences and Technology,
Rawalpindi Pakistan
Javedakhtar09@yahoo.com, myjaved@ceme.edu.pk
Abstract: - Data compression which can be lossy or
lossless is required to decrease the storage
requirement and better data transfer rate. One of the
best image compression techniques is using wavelet
transform. It is comparatively new and has many
advantages over others.
Wavelet transform uses a large variety of
wavelets for decomposition of images. The state of
the art coding techniques like EZW, SPIHT (set
partitioning in hierarchical trees) and EBCOT
(embedded block coding with optimized truncation)
use the wavelet transform as basic and common step
for their own further technical advantages. The
wavelet transform results therefore have the
importance which is dependent on the type of wavelet
used.
In this paper, different wavelets have been used
to perform the transform of a test image and their
results have been discussed and analyzed. The
analysis has been carried out in terms of PSNR (peak
signal to noise ratio) obtained and time taken for
decomposition and reconstruction. SPIHT coding
algorithm is considered as a basic standard in
compression field using wavelet transform. In
addition to wavelet analysis for simple
decomposition, analysis of SPIHT coding algorithm
in terms of PSNR for different wavelets is also
carried out here. This analysis will help in choosing
the wavelet for decomposition of images as per their
application.

1. INTRODUCTION
Wavelet transform is being used for image
compression. It is one of its most popular
applications. The state of art technique for image
compression use wavelet transform for this
purposes nowadays.
The practical implementation of wavelet
compression scheme is very similar to that of
sub band coding schemes. But this technique
uses the wavelets filters instead of sinusoids for
decomposition. The outputs of the filter banks
are down sampled, quantized and encoded. The
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decoder decodes the coded representation, up

samples and reconstructs the signal using a
synthesis filter bank [1].
The JPEG2000 standard which is the
replacement of JPEG uses wavelet transform
instead of DCT (discrete Cosine Transform) to
perform decomposition of the image.
An M u N image is decomposed using wavelet
transform. Each row is filtered and then down
sampled which gives two N u M/2 images. Then
each column is filtered and sub sampled which
gives four N/2 u M/2 images. Of these four sub
images, the one obtained by low pass filtering
rows and columns is referred as LL image, the
one obtained by low pass filtering the rows and
high pass filtering the columns is referred to as
the LH image and other two are HL and HH
images. Each of these sub images can be further
decomposed in similar manner. A quantized
technique can be applied on few/all of these
final sub images to get the compression and
other advantages [3] [4].
EZW (Embedded Zero Wavelet Trees), SPIHT
(Set Partitioning in Hierarchical Trees) and
EBCOT (Embedded Block Coding with
Optimizes Truncation) are few very important
wavelet compression techniques introduced
which have their own standing in this field.
EZW is one of the first techniques which gave
image compression a new direction which was
superior to JPEG standard. SPIHT was further
improvement in this direction and is considered
as a basis for comparison. EBCOT introduces
the latest and versatile ideas in this field and is
the basis of JPEG2000.
SPIHT results have also been obtained and
discussed here as it is the basic algorithm being
used for comparison purposes in this field. It is
one of the quantization techniques which
decompose the LL sub images till certain levels.

It uses a quantization and sort of bit plane

coding technique to code all the sub images
[2][5]. It gives very good results as far as
compression and embedding technique is
concerned.

3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

All above family wavelets have been used
to obtain the results. A woman image of
size 256 x 256 from wavelet toolbox has
been used for this paper. All the experiments
have been performed on Pentium IV, 512
MB RAM with 2.4 GHZ machine.
MATLAB has been used for implementation
of algorithms.

In section 2, a very brief introduction and

characteristics of different types of wavelets
have been given. Section 3 discusses the results
obtained by using different types of wavelets for
a test image in terms of time taken by a codec
and PSNR for second level decomposition
approximation & SPIHT technique. Finally
conclusion is drawn in section 4.

Second level decomposition approximation has been used for simple compression
as it does not give good results for higher
level decompositions for which SPIHT has
been used [6]. Same image has been used
for SPIHT coding algorithm. The level of
decomposition used for this coding
technique is level6 as it does not give good
results for lower decomposition levels [7].
The bit rate used for this is 1 bpp.

2. WAVELETS DESCRIPTION
There are many wavelets being used now a day
for decomposition of signals and images. The
main
types/families
are
daubechies,
biorthogonal, coiflets, symlets and dmey. The
major characteristics of different types of
wavelets/families are briefly described here [8].
The Daubechies Wavelets are compactly
supported and have highest number of vanishing
moments. The types are db1, db2db45.
Discrete Wavelet Transform and continuous
wavelet transform is possible for these. These
are not symmetrical. The length of the filter is
2N. The number of vanishing moments are N.

3.1. Daubechies Wavelets

The results for these wavelets are given in
Table 1 and Graph 1. The time taken for dbs is
increasing with only exception of db10. The
highest PSNR for wavelet decomposition is
given by db25. All others are also comparable as
there is no unusual change in the performance.
For SPIHT result is almost some what same but
the highest PSNR is given by db10. Keeping the
results in mind db10 and db25 are recommended
as these have the inherent property to give better
results.

The Biorthogonal Wavelets are compactly

supported wavelets for which symmetry and
exact reconstruction is possible with FIR filters.
The types are bior1.1, bior1.3, bior1.5, bior2.2,
bior2.4 etc. Discrete and continuous wavelet
transforms are possible with these.

3.2 Biorthogonal Wavelets

The Symlets Wavelets are compactly

supported wavelets with highest number of
vanishing moments. The types are sym1, sym2,
sym3, sym4 and sym5. Discrete and continuous
wavelet transform is possible with these types of
wavelets. Filter length is 2N.

The results of these wavelets are given in

Table 2 and Graph 2. The time taken for wavelet
decomposition and reconstruction is not linear.
The highest PSNR is given by bior6.8. Keeping
this in mind and time taken which is also very
reasonable bior6.8 is recommended as these
possess the inherent property to give better
results.

Coiflets wavelets are compactly supported

wavelets with highest number of vanishing
moments for both psi and phi for a given support
width. Discrete and continuous wavelet
transform is possible with these.

3.3 Coiflets and Dmeyer Wavelets

The results for Coiflets Wavelets are given in
Table 3 and Graph 3. The time taken does not
have some proper pattern. The coif5 gives better
results for wavelet decomposition and SPIHT.

Discrete Meyer wavelet is FIR based approx of

the Meyer wavelet. Meyer wavelet is infinitely
regular orthogonal wavelet

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The Dmeyer wavelet results are shown at the

end of Table 3. It is to be noted that it gives very
good PSNR for both with slightly more time
taken. It also has the inherent ability to give
good results.

4. CONCLUSION
As
wavelet
image
compression
has
revolutionized image compression field with
unbelievable results. This involves the state of
art techniques but wavelet decomposition
remains the initial step for all these including
wavelet packets techniques. Therefore there was
a need to exploit the inherent ability of wavelets.
The analysis was carried out keeping in mind the
fact that if decomposition produces good results
it will also give better chances to advanced
techniques for further improved results [3].
SPIHT has also been used here for this purpose.
Biorthogonal and Coiflets wavelets have the
same type of wavelets giving better results for
both. Generally speaking it is obvious from the
results that any wavelet giving good results for
decomposition will produce good results for
advanced techniques being used for image
compression

3.4 Symlets Wavelets

The results of these types of wavelets are given
in Table 4 and Graph 4. The time taken for
wavelet decomposition and reconstruction is
increasing as we go up. The best PSNR is given
by sym10 and sym25 for decomposition and
SPIHT. So these wavelets are recommended for
compression of images. There is one thing to
note that as we go up beyond sym25 the time
taken increases very rapidly which may make
them impractical for certain applications.
In addition to above the best SPIHT images
reconstructed for different wavelets families are
shown in Figure 1.

Table 1. Debauchies Wavelets Analysis

Table 2. Biorthogonal Wavelets Analysis

Table. 3. Coiflets Wavelets Analysis

Table 4. Symlets Wavelets Analysis

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Graph 1. Daubechies Wavelets

Graph 2. Biorthogonal Wavelets

Graph 3. Coiflets Wavelets

Graph 4. Symlets Wavelets

Figure. 1. SPIHT images for (from left to right) db10, cof5, bior6.8 and sym25.

[2] J. M. Shapiro, Embedded image coding using

zerotrees of wavelet coefficients, IEEE Trans.
Signal Processing, vol. 41, pp. 3445-3462, 1993.

There is need to carry out study that

involves different images and different
decomposition levels to get more accurate
results.

[3] Rafael C. Gonzalez and Richard E. Woods, Digital

Image Processing, 2nd Edition, Prentice Hall Inc,
2002.

REFERENCES

[4] Paul S Addison, The Illustrated Wavelet Transform

Handbook, IOP Publishing Ltd., 2002.

[1] M. Antonini, M. Barland, P. Mathien and I.

Daubechies, Image coding using wavelet
transform, IEEE Trans. Image Processing, vol. 1,
pp. 205-220, April 1992.

[5] Said, A and Pearlman, W. A. A new, fast and

efficient image codec based on set partitioning in
hierarchical trees, IEEE Trans. Circuits and

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[7] Akhtar, J. and Javed, M. Y., Bit Rate Along With

Decomposition Level Analysis of SPIHT
Algorithm International Conference on Parallel and
Distributed Processing Techniques and Applications
PDPTA05 held on 27-30 Jun 2005 Las Vegas,
USA.

Systems for Video Technology, Vol. 6, pp. 243-250,

June 1996.
[6] Akhtar, J., Javed, M. Y., and Akhtar, M.,
Implementation and Analysis of Wavelet Image
Decomposition and SPIHT Algorithm IEEE
INMIC 2004 Speech, Image and Video Processing
pp. 97-101 December 2004.

[8] http://www.mathworks.com.

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