3D Medical image compression using the quincunx wavelet coupled with SPIHT

Abstract

Medical imaging is a growing field due to the development of digital technologies that produce 3D and even 4D data. The counterpart to the resolution offered by these voluminal images resides in the amount of gigantic data, hence the need for compression. This article presents a new coding scheme dedicated to 3D medical images. The originality of our approach lies in the application of the Quinqunx wavelet transform coupled with the SPIHT encoder on a database of medical images. This approach achieves much higher compression rates, while maintaining a very acceptable visual quality.