Highly Accurate Distortion Estimation for JPEG2000 through PDF-Based Estimators

Distortion estimation techniques are often employed in bitplane coding engines to minimize the computational load, or the memory requirements, of the encoder. A common approach is to determine distortion estimators that approximate the mean squared error decreases when data are successively coded and transmitted. Such estimators usually assume that coefficients are uniformly distributed in the quantization interval. Even though this assumption simplifies estimation, it does not exactly correspond with the nature of the signal. This work introduces new distortion estimators determined through a precise approximation of the coefficient's distribution within the quantization intervals. Experimental results obtained when our estimators are used for the post-compression rate-distortion optimization process of JPEG2000 suggest that they are able to approximate distortion with very high accuracy.