An orthogonal oriented quadrature hexagonal image pyramid

An image pyramid has been developed with basis functions that are orthogonal, self-similar, and localized in space, spatial frequency, orientation, and phase. The pyramid operates on a hexagonal sample lattice. The set of seven basis functions consist of three even high-pass kernels, three odd high-pass kernels, and one low-pass kernel. The three even kernels are identified when rotated by 60 or 120 deg, and likewise for the odd. The seven basis functions occupy a point and a hexagon of six nearest neighbors on a hexagonal sample lattice. At the lowest level of the pyramid, the input lattice is the image sample lattice. At each higher level, the input lattice is provided by the low-pass coefficients computed at the previous level. At each level, the output is subsampled in such a way as to yield a new hexagonal lattice with a spacing sq rt 7 larger than the previous level, so that the number of coefficients is reduced by a factor of 7 at each level. The relationship between this image code and the processing architecture of the primate visual cortex is discussed.