本篇論文提出了一個以鏈碼為基礎且為最理想的編碼法用於壓縮輪廓圖。在鏈碼的表示方法中, 每一個連結方向都需要至少兩個位元來紀錄, 而本篇論文所提出的編碼法只需要一個位元就可以表示每一個連結方向。此外, 這個編碼法能夠很簡易地延伸至具可延展性的表示方式。此表示方式把輪廓圖組織為一個基本層 (base layer) 以及兩個延伸層 (enhancement layer), 如此更適合應用於網路上分層傳輸。本篇論文也提出可容忍失真的壓縮方法, 提供給網路上頻寬或資源較不足的系統或應用程式。
為了表示輪廓圖具可延展性的表現方式, 我們進一步地提出了兩個設計方法。在抽點取樣的方法中, 輪廓的可延展性能夠應用在圖片的尺寸或是圖片的解析度上。而另一輪廓圖近似法則把壓縮比率以及失真程度之間的衡量納入了基本層的設計。根據無失真, 可失真以及具可延展性的輪廓圖壓縮方法, 我們設計了幾個實驗。在無失真的輪廓圖壓縮方面, 我們的編碼法與MPEG-4採用的CAE方法以及差分鏈編碼比較。我們的編碼法不但有較高的壓縮率, 而且可擴充至具可延展性的表示法。在與另一可延展漸次多邊形編碼法做比較, 我們提出的方法簡單卻更有效率。在失真程度Dn = 0.02的情況下, 我們在基本層的表示上可節省約20~30% 的位元量。 換句話說, 我們的方法能夠得到一個所需位元數較少的基本層, 而這正是網路上分層式傳輸重要的一項需求。

In this thesis, we present an optimal chain-code-like representation to code contour shapes; in addition, this representation can be easily extended to as a scalable form which structures shape data as the base layer followed by two enhancement layers. Lossy coding scheme is also presented for low-bit-rate applications.
Two schemes are further presented to achieve scalable coding with two downsized strategies. In the first one, the down-sampling scheme, the scalability can be recognized in both spatial and quality-wise. Another one, called the contour approximation scheme, the tradeoff between encoding cost and resulting distortion is considered. We conducted several experiments for the lossless, lossy and scalable methods. Comparing to the block-based CAE method in MPEG-4 and DCC with arithmetic coder, our lossless method not only has the higher compression ratio with less computation steps, but also can be applied to layered transmission. Comparing to the novel scalable shape coding one, the progressive polygon encoding method, in case of the base layer with distortion Dn = 0.02, our scheme saves about 20~30% amount of bits. That is, we have a smaller size base layer, which is important in layered transmission.

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