<title>Using a weighted zeroblock coder (WZBC) for satellite image compression</title>

Abstract

In this paper, we propose an embedded satellite image compression method using the weighted zeroblock coding and optimal sorting. Unlike the conventional quad-tree coding methods such as Set Partition Embedded block (SPECK) and Embedded ZeroBlock Coder (EZBC), in the proposed weighted zeroblock coding (WZBC), 1) we use the unfixed scanning order to code a significant block-set with fewer bits and achieve variable-length quad-tree coding; 2) we exploit the significance degree of sub-blocks which is predicted by a novel context-based weighted strategy to optimize the scanning order of the variable-length quad-tree coding and obtain the weighted zeroblock coding; 3) the rate-distortion performance of WZBC is also optimized by using the above mentioned weight. In the binary mode, the new method does not employ the arithmetic coding and has a fairly low complexity. Experimental results show that the proposed WZBC in the binary coding mode can provide an excellent coding performance compared with SPECK and Set Partitioning In Hierarchical Trees (SPIHT) with arithmetic coding, and can even closely approach JPEG2000. When the arithmetic coding is extensively used, the proposed method can obtain more obvious gain.