HIERARCHICAL FOVEATION BASED ON WAVELETS

Different images, or sub-images, are rendered at different wavelet decoding rates, the more rapidly decoded wavelets forming a focal region about which less detailed images, or sub-images, are formed. In a preferred embodiment, sets of images or sub-images form levels of a hierarchy, and the wavelet encodings of these images and sub-images are decoded at rates associated with each level of the hierarchy. A single image may be partitioned into sub-images, or regions, that form each level of the hierarchy, or independent images may be arranged in a hierarchical manner, and subsequently rendered using a hierarchy of wavelet decoding schemes. The hierarchy can be developed at a remote site, and a hierarchical wavelet encoding can be transmitted to a local site, so that the hierarchical foveation effect can be rendered while the details of the lower levels of the hierarchy are being communicated.