System and method for the lossless progressive streaming of images over a communication network

A server for lossless progressive streaming of images to a client over a communication network, comprising:

• an image storage device for storing a digital image;
• a processor in communication with said image storage device and adapted to perform the steps of:
• preprocessing said digital image through a low pass filter and a lossless wavelet transform a predetermined number of times to yield low pass scaling function data, high pass wavelet coefficient data and halfbit data;
• storing said low pass scaling function data, said high pass wavelet coefficient data and said halfbit data in a memory cache;
• receiving a request for one or more data blocks from said client, each data block corresponding to a region of interest;
• if a requested data block is not present in said memory cache, performing said step of preprocessing on a minimum portion of the region of interest requiring processing;
• transmitting to said client computer subband coefficient data blocks corresponding to said region of interest;
• wherein said lossless wavelet transform comprises the steps of:
• first applying an X-direction wavelet transform to the output of said low pass filter to yield a temporal matrix therefrom;
• second applying a low Y-direction wavelet transform to a low portion of said temporal matrix to yield LL and LH subband coefficients;
• and
• third applying a high Y-direction wavelet transform to a high portion of said temporal matrix to yield HL and HH subband coefficients including a half-bit matrix containing half-bits, each half-bit corresponding to an HH subband coefficient.

A 2D wavelet transform method for use on a server for providing lossless progressive streaming of images to a client over a communication network, said server in communication with an image storage device for storing digital images, said method comprising the steps of:

• first applying an X-direction wavelet transform to a digital image to yield a temporal matrix therefrom;
• second applying a low Y-direction wavelet transform to a low portion of said temporal matrix to yield LL and LH subband coefficients;
• and
• third applying a high Y-direction wavelet transform to a high portion of said temporal matrix to yield HL and HH subband coefficients including a half-bit matrix containing half-bits, each half-bit corresponding to an HH subband coefficient.