Efficient word-level sequential coding scheme of bit plane coding for EBCOT in JPEG2000

The embedded block coding with optimized truncation (EBCOT) is the state-of-the-art coding technique for image compression, which is the heart of the latest still image compression standard JPEG2000. EBCOT can be partitioned into three steps: bit plane coding (BPC), context adaptive binary arithmetic coding (CABAC) and post-compression rate-distortion (PCRD) optimization. The bit plane coding in JPEG2000 is a fractional bit-plane coding method, in which the transformed coefficients of a code block are coded bit plane by bit plane with 3 passes in each bit-plane, and context-decision (CX-D) pair of the coded symbol is generated for CABAC. In this paper, a new word-level sequential (WLS) coding scheme for BPC is presented, which makes all the passes coding be completed in one scan, with the context formation in all bit-planes being performed in parallel and all the samples being coded in sequential. The status variables used in context formation are produced on-the-fly. This new algorithm can efficiently implement both the regular mode and vertical causal one recommended by JPEG2000. The proposed algorithm reduces efficiently the size of memory and the amount of memory accessing, and increases significantly the speed of coding. It is well suited for both software and hardware implementation.