Joint coding method for images and videos with multiple arbitrarily shaped segments or objects

A method for wavelet transform coding a digital image, said method comprising:

• accepting a digital image and a segmentation map of said digital image, said segmentation map grouping pixels of said digital image into multiple contiguous segments;
• associating an arbitrary shape wavelet transform filter from a set of candidate filters with each of said contiguous segments, wherein at least two of said contiguous segments are associated with different filters from said set of candidate filters, and wherein each filter in the set of candidate filters corresponds to a different wavelet function than the other filters in the set correspond to;
• wavelet transforming each contiguous segment using a common decomposition level and the segment's associated arbitrary shape wavelet transform filter, thereby obtaining a set of transform coefficients for each contiguous segment;
• and
• merging each set of transform coefficients into a composite wavelet coefficient image.

A digital image coder, said coder comprising:

• a segmentor for parsing a digital image into multiple image segments;
• a bank of wavelet transform filters, each of said filters producing a set of wavelet transform coefficients for one or more image segments associated with that filter by said segmentor, each filter in the bank of filters corresponding to a different wavelet function than the other filters in the bank correspond to;
• and
• a composite wavelet coefficient mapper that combines sets of wavelet transform coefficients produced by said bank of wavelet transform filters for said digital image into a common wavelet coefficient image.

A digital image coder, said coder comprising:

• a segmentor for parsing a digital image into multiple arbitrarily-shaped image segments;
• a bank of arbitrary-shape wavelet transform filters, each of said filters producing a set of wavelet transform coefficients for one or more image segments associated with that filter by said segmentor, each filter in the bank of filters corresponding to a different wavelet function than the other filters in the bank correspond to;
• a composite wavelet coefficient mapper that combines sets of wavelet transform coefficients produced by said bank of wavelet transform filters for said digital image into a common wavelet coefficient image;
• and
• a rate-distortion optimizing embedded coder that operates on a common wavelet coefficient image produced by said composite wavelet coefficient mapper to produce a scaleable output bitstream.