HLS: Hierarchical Lossless Segmentation - A New Approach for Bilevel Image Compression

Abstract

Imaging plays a significant role in modern applications as medicine, telemetry and archiving. Hence, image compression is among the procedures of preserving the system resources. In this paper, we propose a new lossless compression technique based on hierarchical segmentation, namely hierarchi-callossless segmentation (HLS). The principle of HLS works with bilevel images on hierarchical segmentation until homogeneous segments are obtained. The homogeneous segments are then encoded by an efficient interference-limiting constellation in which each symbol assembles two bits. From the compression performance perspective, findings illustrate that the proposed HLS outperforms the existing work with compression gain up to 6%. From the compression time perspective, HLS introduces moderate computational time among the comparable approaches. Images, that meet the smoothness criterion, highlight the compression and computational efficiencies of our proposal.