Performance Analysis of DCT, Hadamard, and PCA in Block-Based Image Compression

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Author: Ahlawat, Yashika
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Ahlawat, Yashika
author_facet Ahlawat, Yashika
contents Block based image compression relies on transform coding to concentrate signal energy into a small number of coefficients. While classical codecs use fixed transforms such as the Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT), data driven methods such as Principal Component Analysis (PCA) are theoretically optimal for decorrelation. This paper presents an experimental comparison of DCT, Hadamard, and PCA across multiple block sizes and compression rates. Using rate distortion and energy compaction analysis, we show that PCA outperforms fixed transforms only when block dimensionality is sufficiently large, while DCT remains near optimal for standard block sizes such as $8\times8$ and at low bit rates. These results explain the robustness of DCT in practical codecs and highlight the limitations of block wise learned transforms.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_06273
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Performance Analysis of DCT, Hadamard, and PCA in Block-Based Image Compression
Ahlawat, Yashika
Image and Video Processing
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Block based image compression relies on transform coding to concentrate signal energy into a small number of coefficients. While classical codecs use fixed transforms such as the Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT), data driven methods such as Principal Component Analysis (PCA) are theoretically optimal for decorrelation. This paper presents an experimental comparison of DCT, Hadamard, and PCA across multiple block sizes and compression rates. Using rate distortion and energy compaction analysis, we show that PCA outperforms fixed transforms only when block dimensionality is sufficiently large, while DCT remains near optimal for standard block sizes such as $8\times8$ and at low bit rates. These results explain the robustness of DCT in practical codecs and highlight the limitations of block wise learned transforms.
title Performance Analysis of DCT, Hadamard, and PCA in Block-Based Image Compression
topic Image and Video Processing
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.06273