ABSTRACT
Since the mid-1980s, a number of signal processing applications have emerged using wavelet theory. Among those applications, the most widespread developments have occurred in the area of data compression. Wavelet techniques have demonstrated the ability to provide not only high coding efficiency but also spatial and quality scalability features. This chapter focuses on the utility of the wavelet transform for image data compression applications. It is known that the wavelet transform is rather different from the Fourier transform. The continuous-time wavelet transform can be considered as a correlation. An alternative implementation of the discrete wavelet transform has been proposed known as the lifting scheme. The implementation of the lifting scheme is very efficient and similar to the fast Fourier transform implementation for Fourier transform. An additional advantage which lifting scheme possesses, has something to do with integer wavelet transform.
