Producing a compressed digital image organized into layers having information relating to different viewing conditions and resolutions

A method for producing a compressed digital image from an input digital image, wherein the compressed digital image is organized into layers having information that can be extracted in accordance with different desired viewing conditions and resolutions, comprising the steps of:

• (a) decomposing the input digital image to produce a plurality of subbands, each subband having a plurality of subband coefficients;
• (b) quantizing the plurality of subband coefficients of each subband of the decomposed input digital image to produce a quantized output value for each subband coefficient of each subband;
• (c) partitioning each subband into a plurality of codeblocks;
• (d) forming at least one bit-plane from the quantized output values of subband coefficients of each codeblock of each subband;
• (e) entropy encoding each bit-plane of each codeblock for each subband in at least one pass to produce a compressed bit-stream corresponding to each pass, wherein each codeblock is entropy encoded independently of the other codeblocks;
• (f) providing a visual quality table that specifies a number of expected visual quality levels by providing selectable viewing conditions and resolutions for each expected visual quality level;
• (g) identifying a minimal set of passes and their corresponding compressed bit-streams that are necessary to satisfy the expected visual quality levels provided in the visual quality table, whereby a user can select different desired viewing conditions and resolutions for each compressed image;
• and
• (h) ordering the compressed bit-streams corresponding to passes from the lowest expected visual quality level to the highest expected visual quality level specified in the visual quality table to produce a compressed digital image, wherein each layer includes the passes and their corresponding compressed bit-streams from the identified minimal set corresponding to the expected visual quality level that have not been included in any lower visual quality layers.

A digital camera for capturing an image of a scene and for producing a compressed digital image from an input digital image, wherein the compressed digital image is organized into layers having information that can be extracted in accordance with different desired viewing conditions and resolutions, comprising;

• (a) image sensor means for capturing an image of the scene and producing a digital image representative of the scene;
• (b) means for processing the digital image to provide a processed digital image;
• (c) decomposing the processed digital image to produce a plurality of subbands, each subband having a plurality of subband coefficients;
• (d) quantizing the plurality of subband coefficients of each subband of the decomposed digital image to produce a quantized output value for each subband coefficient of each subband;
• (e) partitioning each subband into a plurality of codeblocks;
• (f) forming at least one bit-plane from the quantized output values of subband coefficients of each codeblock of each subband;
• (g) entropy encoding each bit-plane of each codeblock for each subband in at least one pass to produce a compressed bit-stream corresponding to each pass, wherein each codeblock is entropy encoded independently of the other codeblocks;
• (h) providing a visual quality table that specifies a number of expected visual quality levels by providing selectable viewing conditions and resolutions for each expected visual quality level;
• (i) identifying a minimal set of passes and their corresponding compressed bit-streams that are necessary to satisfy the expected visual quality levels provided in the visual quality table, whereby a user can select different desired viewing conditions and resolutions for each compressed image;
• (j) ordering the compressed bit-streams corresponding to passes from the lowest expected visual quality level to the highest expected visual quality level specified in the visual quality table to produce a compressed digital image, wherein each layer includes the passes and their corresponding compressed bit-streams from the identified minimal set corresponding to the expected visual quality level that have not been included in any lower visual quality layers;
• and
• (k) storage means for storing the compressed digital image.