Image Coding
Suppose we wish to transmit an image sampled into an L x L array with B bits/pixel.
Then a total of L2B bits must be transmitted.
Typically, L = 512, B = 8 ? L2B ? 2 million bits!
In high-resolution medical imaging (e.g., digital mammography), image sizes are of the order of L = 4000, B = 12 ? L2B ? 200 million bits!
In the case of 3D medical images of size 512 x 512 x 512 voxels with 12 - 16 bits/voxel, we run into dataset sizes of 2 billion bits per image!
This motivates one to consider efficient data compression techniques for transmission or archival of digital images.