New format for coding of single and sequences of medical images

Abstract

The recent development and use of huge image databases creates various problems concerning their efficient archiving and content protection. A wide variety of standards, methods and formats have been created, most of them aimed at the efficient compression of still images. Each standard and method has its specific advantages and demerits, and the best image compression solution is still to come. This chapter presents new format for archiving of still images and sequences of medical images, based on the Inverse Pyramid Decomposition, whose compression efficiency is comparable to that of JPEG. Main advantages of the new format are the comparatively low computational complexity and the ability to insert resistant and fragile watermarks in same digital image. © 2014 Springer International Publishing Switzerland.