Notes on Compression

The MR/1 Approach to Compression

• A range of wavelet and multiple scale morphological transforms are available.
• Very good results, incorporating robustness, are obtained with the pyramidal median transform.
• Extensive evaluation has been carried out, based on astrometrical and photometrical experiments on astronomical images.
• Resolution-based progressive transmission has been prototyped.
• So too has applet-based client-side decompression and display.
• Even fairly large images (e.g. upwards of 800x800) take a minute or two (machine-dependent) for compression, and decompression is immediate.
• For various examples, evaluation, and to read further:
  • Chapter 7 of J-L Starck, F Murtagh and A Bijaoui, Image and Data Analysis: the Multiscale Approach", Cambridge University Press, 1998.
  • F Murtagh, J-L Starck and M Louys, "Very high quality image compression based on noise modeling", International Journal of Imaging Science and Technology, 9, 38-45, 1998.
  • JL Starck, F Murtagh, B Pirenne and M Albrecht, "Astronomical image compression based on noise suppression", Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 108, 446-455, 1996.