Memory efficient set partitioning in hierarchical tree (MESH) for wavelet image compression

Abstract

This paper presents a memory efficient version of set partitioning in hierarchical tree (SPIHT). The proposed coder called Memory Efficient SPIHT (MESH) uses a single re-usable list instead of three continuously growing linked lists as in conventional SPIHT. The list is reinitialized at the beginning of each bit-plane (coding pass) and is exhausted within the same bit-plane. Another feature of the proposed coder is that it uses a single pass for each bit-plane by merging the sorting and refinement passes of the conventional version of SPIHT. The performance of the proposed coder is measured in terms of coding efficiency, and the worst case dynamic memory requirements due to the list entries in each bit-plane. Performance comparison with SPIHT shows that the proposed coder reduces the dynamic memory requirement by about 50-70% compared to the SPIHT while retaining its coding efficiency.