Subband coding of color images with multiplierless encoders and decoders

A new approach to coding color images is presented in this paper, that provides high quality low bit rate performance with very modest computational complexity. The method is based on subband coding with residual multistage scalar quantizers. The high quality of the system is due mainly to the introduction of multidimensional prediction, which allows high order statistical dependencies to be exploited simultaneously among subbands, color planes, and quantization stages. This enables the system to perform at a level comparable to the best reported subband coders in the literature. However, unique to this coder is a very simple implementation that avoids multiplications in both the quantization and entropy coding stages. The paper provides a description of the new coder, a discussion of the design methodology, and some performance comparisons in terms of quality and complexity.