E.V. Egorova

A new scientific direction related with the so-called "wavelet" was formed in the world during the last ten years. "Wavelet" is translation of French word "ondelette", that means small waves, going one after another. It should be noted that wavelets caused a revolution in theory and practice of non-stationary signal processing. Nowadays wavelets are widely used for pattern recognition, processing and synthesis of various signals (e.g. speech and medical), study of properties of turbulent fields and in many other spheres of intellectual activities. Wavelet algorithm is one of the promising methods of effective data (signal) compression. Wavelet algorithm of data compression is directly connected with application of self-similarity of image areas. Compression ratio may vary within the limits of 25 - 100. As compression ratio grows, the "staircase effect" (occurrence of several pixel stairs of different brightness) is observed on sharp edges, especially on diagonal ones. Principle of operation of arithmetical and statistical compression algorithm is based on increase of signal entropy, i.e. elimination of redundant information. The paper deals with data compression algorithm based on discrete wavelet Haar transform and with characteristics being very promising for application in systems of mobile communication and video information compression..