Chapter 7(7.1,7.2,7.

3)
Wavelets and Multiresolution Processing
7.1 Preliminaries
When looking at images, we generally see connected regions of similar texture and intensity
levels combined to form objects. Small or low contrast objects are better viewed at high
resolution. If small and large objects are present it can be advantageous to study them at
different resolutions. From math viewpoint, images are 2D arrays of intensity values with
locally varying statistics that result from different features.
Image pyramids
An image pyramid is a collection of decreasing resolution images arranged in the shape of a
pyramid. The base of a pyramid is a high resolution image being processed; the apex contains a
low-resolution approximation. While moving up, both size and resolution decrease.

The apex level 0 is of size 1x1. Most pyramids are truncated to P + 1 levels, where
1 P J. The total number of pixels in a P + 1 level pyramid is

On the diagram for constructing two image pyramids, the level j-1 approximation output
provides the images needed to build an approximation pyramid, while the level j prediction
residual output is used to build a complementary prediction residual pyramid. Unlike
approximation pyramids, prediction residual pyramids contain only one reduced-resolution
approximation of the input image (top of the pyramid, level J-P). All other levels contain
prediction residuals where the level j prediction residual (J-P+1 j J) is defined as the
difference between level j approximation and its estimate. An estimate of the level j
approximation is computed based on the level j-1 approximation. Approximation and
prediction residual pyramids can be computed by iterations. The original image is placed in
level J of the approximation pyramid. The pyramids then are generated in P iterations for the
following steps for j = J, J-1,, J-P+1:
1. Compute a reduced-resolution approximation of the level j image by filtering and
downsampling the filtered image by 2.
2. Estimate the level j input image from the reduced-resolution approximation by upsampling
by and filtering.
3. Compute the difference between the output of step 2 and the input of step 1. place this result
in level j of the prediction residual pyramid.

Both operations are usually followed by approximation and interpolation filters.
4-level approximation pyramid: an original 512x512 image and its approximations at 256x256,
128x128, and 64x64. A Gaussian smoothing filter was used. Prediction residual pyramid A
bilinear interpolation filter was used.
Subband coding
Filter h0(n) is a low-pass (half-band) filter, whose output flp(n) is an approximation of the input
f(n); h1(n) is a high-pass (half-band) filter, whose output fhp(n) is a high-frequency or detail part
of the input f(n). Synthesis filters glp(n) and ghp(n) combine two subband signals to produce f
(n) The goal of subband coding is to select filters such that Which is called perfect
reconstruction conditions that require f ^ (n) = f (n)
g 0 (n) = (1)
n
h 1 (n)
g 1(n) = (1)
n+1
h 0 (n)
or
g 0 (n) = (1)
n+1
h 1 (n)
g 1(n) = (1)
n
h 0 (n)
Filters must satisfy biorthogonality condition

Of special interest are filters satisfying orthonormality condition

which satisfy the conditions

An orthonormal filter bank can be designed from a single prototype filter; all other filters are
computed from the prototype.
Haar transform
The Haar transform basis functions are the oldest and simplest known orthonormal wavelets.
The Haar transform is separable and expressible in matrix form
T = HFH
T
,
where F is an N N image, H is an N N transformation matrix that contains the Haar basis
functions, and T is the resulting N N transform. The basis functions are scaled and translated
versions of a mother wavelet.
Consider a signal f in one dimension from - to +

Haar scaling function is denoted by (t) and Haar wavelet function is denoted by (t).
Haar scaling function (averaging or lowpass filter) at level 0 (in the original signal) is
given by
Translation by j is denoted by j (x)
Figure below shows both (x) and j (x)
7.2 Multiresolution Expansions
In Multi-resolution Analysis (MRA), a Scaling Function is used to create a series of
approximations of a function or image, each differing by a factor 2 from its nearest neighboring
approximations. Additional functions, called Wavelet, are used to encode the difference in
information between adjacent approximations.
Series expansions
If is an orthonormal basis for V, then
( ) ( )
k k
k
f x x

: real-valued expansion coefficients

( ) : real-valued expansion functions
k
k
x

*
( ), ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ): the dual function of ( )
k k k k k
x f x x f x dx x x

% % %
( ) ( )
k k
x x
%
If the expansion is unique, the are called basis functions.
The function space of the expansion set :
If are not orthonormal but are an orthogonal basis for V, then the basis functions and
their duals are called biorthogonal.
Some cases involved are
CASE 1: Expansion functions form an orthonormal basis
CASE 2: Expansion functions are not orthonormal, but are an orthogonal basis (biorthogonal
basis)
CASE 3: Expansion set is not a basis.
Scaling function
A set of expansion functions composed of integer translations and binary scalings of the
real, square-integrable function
If we restrict j=j0, the subspace is

4 requirements of the scaling function:
The scaling function is orthogonal to its integer translates.
The subspaces spanned by the scaling function at low scales are nested within those
spanned at higher scales.
The only function that is common to all is .
Any function can be represented with arbitrary coarse resolution, because the coarser
portions can be represented by the finer portions.
( ) x
( ) x
{ } ( )
k
k
V span x
( ) x
0 ,
Biorthogonal: ( ), ( )
1 ,
j k jk
j k
x x
j k



'

%
) (
~
) (
1
0
) ( ), ( x x
k j
k j
x x
k k jk k j

'

'

k j
k j
x x
k j x x
jk k j
k j
1
0
) (
~
), (
0 ) ( ), (


j
V ( ) { } 0 f x V

If f(x) is an element of V0, it is also an element of V1
all V0 expansion functions are a part of V1
V0 is a subspace
Wavelet Functions
The function spans the difference between any two adjacent scaling subspaces, Vj and Vj+1
together with its integer translates & binary scalings
the subspace is

If f (x)W
j

The scaling and wavelet function subspaces in figure below are related by
We can express the space of all measurable, square-integrable function as
or


1 j j j
V V W
+

( )
2
0 0 1 2
L V W W W R L
( )
2
2 1 0 1 2
L W W W W W

R L L
7.3 Wavelet Transforms in One Dimension

Discrete Wavelet Transform
Cwt is redundant as the transform is calculated by continuously shifting a continuously
scalable function over a signal and calculating the correlation between the two
The discrete form is normally a [piecewise] continuous function obtained by sampling
the time-scale space at discrete intervals.
The process of transforming a continuous signal into a series of wavelet coefficients is
known as wavelet series decomposition.
Scaling function can be expressed in wavelets from - to j.
Adding a wavelet spectrum to the scaling function yields a new scaling function, with
a spectrum twice as wide as the first
o Addition allows us to express the first scaling function in terms of the second.
o The formal expression of this phenomenon leads to multiresolution formulation or two-scale
relation as
o This equation states that the scaling function (average) at a given scale can be expressed in
terms of translated scaling functions at the next smaller scale, where the smaller scale implies
more detail
o Similarly, the wavelets (detail) can also be expressed in terms of translated scaling functions
at the next smaller scale as
o The functions h(k) and g(k) are known as scaling filter and wavelet filter, respectively
o These filters allow us to implement the discrete wavelet transform (dwt) as an iterated digital
filter bank.
Example:
Continuous Wavelet Transform
The definition of the CWT is
Continuous input to a continuous output with 2 continuous variables, translation and
scaling.
Inverse transformis given by:
It is guaranteed to be reversible if the admissibility criterion is satisfied.
It is difficult to implement compared to DWT.
( ) ( )
1
,
| |
x
Ws f x dt
s s

( ) ( )
2
0
1
,
x
f x W s d ds
s Cs s

2
| ( )|
| |
f
C df
f

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