School of Information Science & Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing, 210096, China

Based on the idea of second generation image coding, a novel scheme for coding still images is presented. At first, an image was partitioned with a pulse-coupled neural network; and then an improved chain code and the 2D discrete cosine transform was adopted to encode the shape and the color of its edges respectively. To code its smooth and texture regions, an improved zero-trees strategy based on the 2nd generation wavelet was chosen. After that, the zero-tree chart was selected to rearrange quantified coefficients. And finally some regulations were given according to psychology of various users. Experiments under noiseless channels demonstrate that the proposed method performs better than those of the current one, such as JPEG, CMP, EZW and JPEG2000.