Patent ID: 7418144

Claim:
A method of image transformation comprising: transforming an n-dimensional image, wherein n≧2, into a wavelet-transformed image comprised of wavelet coefficients by performing one-dimensional wavelet transformations on image values along a plurality of curved paths dependent upon content of the image, using the steps of: a) determining the plurality of curved paths within the image; b) determining image values along each of the curved paths; d) performing the one-dimensional wavelet transformations on the image values along the curved paths using a low-pass 1-D wavelet filter and a high-pass 1-D wavelet filter along each of the curved paths to obtain a low-pass filtered image comprised of low-pass wavelet coefficients and a high-pass filtered image comprised of high-pass wavelet coefficients; and, e) down-sampling the low-pass and the high-pass filtered images along the first coordinate to obtain down-sampled low-pass and high-pass filtered images.