High Dynamic Range Image Compression Based on Visual Saliency

Abstract

High dynamic range (HDR) image has larger luminance range than conventional low dynamic range (LDR) image, which is more consistent with human visual system (HVS). Recently, JPEG committee releases a new HDR image compression standard JPEG XT. It decomposes input HDR image into base layer and extension layer. However, this method doesn’t make full use of HVS, causing waste of bits on imperceptible regions to human eyes. In this paper, a visual saliency based HDR image compression scheme is proposed. The saliency map of tone mapped HDR image is first extracted, then is used to guide extension layer encoding. The compression quality is adaptive to the saliency of the coding region of the image. Extensive experimental results show that our method outperforms JPEG XT profile A, B, C, and offers the JPEG compatibility at the same time. Moreover, our method can provide progressive coding of extension layer.