Compression of thermographic images in welding engineering: a comparative study

This contribution investigates different coding methods in application to the compression of thermographic images which were captured on-line for an off-line inspection of welding joints. On-line recording of images enables a complete quality checking. The standard coding algorithm JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group), a wavelet-based coding scheme and a DPCM-based (differential pulse code modulation) algorithm are compared with regard to the requirements of real-time applications and minimal loss of information.