The goal of my thesis work is to conceive novel image coders inspired from the retina. Indeed, while the issue of coding is important for energy and bandwidth saving, we are convinced that little is still to be gained if no shift is made in the philosophy underlying the conception of new image coders/decoders. So that, my work aims at laying the groundwork for the design of original image and video compression schemes that are based on models of biological visual systems. Here, we will focus on the retina as it is the organ responsible of the acquisition of the visual stimulus and the first coding device within the human visual system. The subject treated is very challenging and motivating for two main reasons. The first one is that the video compression techniques are now essential for most standard equipments such as HDTV and DVD, and that recent technical progress allows us to imagine more sophisticated coding schemes. The second one is that the recent discoveries in neurosciences about the human visual system could be a source of inspiration to propose new ideas, especially if we are able to better understand the neural code of the retina. Thus, we expect that an interdisciplinary approach can help achieve our goals. This approach would combine the signal processing techniques and the knowledge acquired by neurophysiologists. Hopefully, our effort will lead us towards novel coding algorithms that go beyond the standards.
