Method for image encoding

A method for encoding data defining an image, the method comprising the steps of:

• segmenting the image into image blocks, the image blocks having a uniform block size;
• applying a frequency-based transform to each of the image blocks, thereby providing transformed image data in which the image data is represented as coefficients defining a linear combination of predetermined basis functions having different spatial frequencies;
• defining one or more sets of blocks, each set of blocks comprising a plurality of blocks of transformed image data, and further partitioning each set of blocks into a plurality of slices of blocks, each slice consisting of a number of consecutive blocks in the set;
• wherein each slice comprises a reference block;
• replacing the each of the coefficients in subsequent blocks in said each slice with a prediction, the prediction being based on a corresponding coefficient in the reference block;
• quantising the coefficients and the predictions;
• and
• converting the quantised coefficients and predictions into bits of binary code.