NSUTCQ: an Alternative Image-Compression Algorithm

No-shift universal trellis-coded quantization (NSUTCQ) is an image-data-compression/decompression algorithm designed to be especially useful in telemedicine. Like some other image-compression/decompression algorithms, this one provides both (1) lossy compression/decompression for transmission of most of the information in an image subject to competing requirements to limit transmission time, transmission bandwidth, and image distortion and (2) lossless (or constrained-loss) compression/decompression for transmitting the residual information (the remainder of the information necessary for reconstruction in full detail) about regions of interest (ROIs) within images. Thus, in telemedicine, a diagnostician could preliminarily view less-detailed versions of images, then select ROIs that appear to be significant and request reconstruction of the fully detailed versions of the ROIs.