Layered Representations for Image Coding

Edward H. Adelson

Published in
Technical Report 181: MIT Media Lab (1991).
I describe a new image representation based on the concept of "layers" that captures several important aspects of images and may substantially improve the efficiency and flexibility of image coding for many image sequences.

The layered representation also allows for high-quality frame-rate conversion, so that, for example, an original image sequence shot at 50 hz, can be converted to a frame rate of 60 hz without introducing artifacts.

When an image sequence is represented as layers, it also becomes possible to perform interesting editing and post-production effects that would be impossible with ordinary representations.