Improving Medical Video Coding Using Multi Scale Quincunx Lattice: From Low Bitrate to High Quality

Abstract

In recent years, the healthcare sector has seen an increase in the use of medical images and videos. However, storage and transmission of this huge volume of data remain a challenging task, requiring the use of compression techniques. In this paper, the authors propose an algorithm to improve the visual quality of compressed medical video for lower bitrate without modifying the content of information such as edges and textures, this is a unique way for doctors to store and share medical data over the internet. The algorithm has not yet been sufficiently explored in medical video coding. In this study, the performances of the quincunx wavelet transform (QWT) combined with the set partitioning in hierarchical trees (SPIHT) encoder are discussed. The QWTs were chosen due to their limited number of wavelets family and reduced dilatation factor. The high efficiency of the suggested algorithm is checked against the coding standard based on the discrete cosines transform (DCT) or discrete wavelet transform (DWT). The assessment of the quality of the decoded video is based on the use of the peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR), the mean structural similarity (MSSIM) and the visual information fidelity (VIF). The results prove that the QWT+SPIHT provide competing performance where the PSNR reached 33 dB value for lower bitrate (137.408 Kbps) against previous standards.