Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Discrete cosine transforms (DCTs)'
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Akhtar, Mahmood Electrical Engineering & Telecommunications Faculty of Engineering UNSW. "Genomic sequence processing: gene finding in eukaryotes." Publisher:University of New South Wales. Electrical Engineering & Telecommunications, 2008. http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/40912.
Full textAhmed, Kamal Ali. "Digital watermarking of still images." Thesis, University of Manchester, 2013. https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/digital-watermarking-of-still-images(0dc4b146-3d97-458f-9506-8c67bc3a155b).html.
Full textMuller, Rikus. "Applying the MDCT to image compression." Thesis, Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/1197.
Full textThe replacement of the standard discrete cosine transform (DCT) of JPEG with the windowed modifed DCT (MDCT) is investigated to determine whether improvements in numerical quality can be achieved. To this end, we employ an existing algorithm for optimal quantisation, for which we also propose improvements. This involves the modelling and prediction of quantisation tables to initialise the algorithm, a strategy that is also thoroughly tested. Furthermore, the effects of various window functions on the coding results are investigated, and we find that improved quality can indeed be achieved by modifying JPEG in this fashion.
Hantehzadeh, Neda. "3-D Face Recognition using the Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT)." Available to subscribers only, 2009. http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1964658571&sid=3&Fmt=2&clientId=1509&RQT=309&VName=PQD.
Full textHaque, S. M. Rafizul. "Singular Value Decomposition and Discrete Cosine Transform based Image Watermarking." Thesis, Blekinge Tekniska Högskola, Avdelningen för för interaktion och systemdesign, 2008. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:bth-5269.
Full textPhone number: +88041730212
Pagliari, Carla Liberal. "Perspective-view image matching in the DCT domain." Thesis, University of Essex, 2000. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.298594.
Full textBhardwaj, Divya Anshu. "Inverse Discrete Cosine Transform by Bit Parallel Implementation and Power Comparision." Thesis, Linköping University, Department of Electrical Engineering, 2003. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-2447.
Full textThe goal of this project was to implement and compare Invere Discrete Cosine Transform using three methods i.e. by bit parallel, digit serial and bit serial. This application describes a one dimensional Discrete Cosine Transform by bit prallel method and has been implemented by 0.35 ìm technology. When implementing a design, there are several considerations like word length etc. were taken into account. The code was implemented using WHDL and some of the calculations were done in MATLAB. The VHDL code was the synthesized using Design Analyzer of Synopsis; power was calculated and the results were compared.
Faridi, Imran Zafar. "Image Compression Using Bidirectional DCT to Remove Blocking Artifacts." Digital Archive @ GSU, 2005. http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/cs_theses/9.
Full textMartucci, Stephen A. "Symmetric convolution and the discrete sine and cosine transforms : principles and applications." Diss., Georgia Institute of Technology, 1993. http://hdl.handle.net/1853/15038.
Full textAl-Gindy, Ahmed M. N. "Design and analysis of Discrete Cosine Transform-based watermarking algorithms for digital images. Development and evaluation of blind Discrete Cosine Transform-based watermarking algorithms for copyright protection of digital images using handwritten signatures and mobile phone numbers." Thesis, University of Bradford, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10454/5450.
Full textAbdallah, Abdallah Sabry. "Investigation of New Techniques for Face detection." Thesis, Virginia Tech, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/33191.
Full textMaster of Science
Makkaoui, Leila. "Compression d'images dans les réseaux de capteurs sans fil." Phd thesis, Université de Lorraine, 2012. http://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-00795503.
Full textAimer, Younes. "Étude des performances d'un système de communication sans fil à haut débit." Thesis, Poitiers, 2019. http://www.theses.fr/2019POIT2269.
Full textThe request of the users in terms of rate, coverage and quality of service is growing exponentially, with increasing demand for electrical energy, to ensure networks link. In this context, new waveforms based on the OFDM modulation become widely popular and used intensively in recent radio communications architectures. However, these signals are sensitive to the power amplifier nonlinearities because of their high envelope fluctuations characterized by a high PAPR, which degrades the energy consumption and the transmitter efficiency.In this thesis, we first began by a state art of the PAPR reduction techniques. This presentation allowed us to propose a new method based on interleaving and coding techniques. The first contribution consists on the use of the interleaving technique using null-subcarriers for the transmission of the side information, while respecting the frequency specifications of the used standard. The second one is based on the conjunction of the Shaping technique and the Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT), with the aim of improving the performance of the system. Simulation results show that the use of these two techniques allows a significant gain in terms of PAPR reduction, which results in the improvement of the system efficiency. Finally, we presented an experimental study of the proposed techniques using an RF test bench with a commercial LDMOS 20 W PA, class AB operating at 3.7 GHz. The results obtained for the IEEE 802.11 standards show that the proposed approaches allow the transmission robustness and quality, while optimizing the power consumption
Špaček, Milan. "Porovnání možností komprese multimediálních signálů." Master's thesis, Vysoké učení technické v Brně. Fakulta elektrotechniky a komunikačních technologií, 2013. http://www.nusl.cz/ntk/nusl-220319.
Full textKrejčí, Michal. "Komprese dat." Master's thesis, Vysoké učení technické v Brně. Fakulta elektrotechniky a komunikačních technologií, 2009. http://www.nusl.cz/ntk/nusl-217934.
Full textDvořák, Martin. "Výukový video kodek." Master's thesis, Vysoké učení technické v Brně. Fakulta elektrotechniky a komunikačních technologií, 2012. http://www.nusl.cz/ntk/nusl-219882.
Full text"Postprocessing of images coded using block DCT at low bit rates." 2007. http://library.cuhk.edu.hk/record=b5893316.
Full textThesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2007.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 86-91).
Abstracts in English and Chinese.
Abstract --- p.i
摘要 --- p.iii
Contributions --- p.iv
Acknowledgement --- p.vi
Abbreviations --- p.xviii
Notations --- p.xxi
Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1
Chapter 1.1 --- Image compression and postprocessing --- p.1
Chapter 1.2 --- A brief review of postprocessing --- p.3
Chapter 1.3 --- Objective and methodology of the research --- p.7
Chapter 1.4 --- Thesis organization --- p.8
Chapter 1.5 --- A note on publication --- p.9
Chapter 2 --- Background Study --- p.11
Chapter 2.1 --- Image models --- p.11
Chapter 2.1.1 --- Minimum edge difference (MED) criterion for block boundaries --- p.12
Chapter 2.1.2 --- van Beek's edge model for an edge --- p.15
Chapter 2.1.3 --- Fields of experts (FoE) for an image --- p.16
Chapter 2.2 --- Degradation models --- p.20
Chapter 2.2.1 --- Quantization constraint set (QCS) and uniform noise --- p.21
Chapter 2.2.2 --- Narrow quantization constraint set (NQCS) --- p.22
Chapter 2.2.3 --- Gaussian noise --- p.22
Chapter 2.2.4 --- Edge width enlargement after quantization --- p.25
Chapter 2.3 --- Use of these models for postprocessing --- p.27
Chapter 2.3.1 --- MED and edge models --- p.27
Chapter 2.3.2 --- The FoE prior model --- p.27
Chapter 3 --- Postprocessing using MED and edge models --- p.28
Chapter 3.1 --- Blocking artifacts suppression by coefficient restoration --- p.29
Chapter 3.1.1 --- AC coefficient restoration by MED --- p.29
Chapter 3.1.2 --- General derivation --- p.31
Chapter 3.2 --- Detailed algorithm --- p.34
Chapter 3.2.1 --- Edge identification --- p.36
Chapter 3.2.2 --- Region classification --- p.36
Chapter 3.2.3 --- Edge reconstruction --- p.37
Chapter 3.2.4 --- Image reconstruction --- p.37
Chapter 3.3 --- Experimental results --- p.38
Chapter 3.3.1 --- Results of the proposed method --- p.38
Chapter 3.3.2 --- Comparison with one wavelet-based method --- p.39
Chapter 3.4 --- On the global minimum of the edge difference . . --- p.41
Chapter 3.4.1 --- The constrained minimization problem . . --- p.41
Chapter 3.4.2 --- Experimental examination --- p.42
Chapter 3.4.3 --- Discussions --- p.43
Chapter 3.5 --- Conclusions --- p.44
Chapter 4 --- Postprocessing by the MAP criterion using FoE --- p.49
Chapter 4.1 --- The proposed method --- p.49
Chapter 4.1.1 --- The MAP criterion --- p.49
Chapter 4.1.2 --- The optimization problem --- p.51
Chapter 4.2 --- Experimental results --- p.52
Chapter 4.2.1 --- Setting algorithm parameters --- p.53
Chapter 4.2.2 --- Results --- p.56
Chapter 4.3 --- Investigation on the quantization noise model . . --- p.58
Chapter 4.4 --- Conclusions --- p.61
Chapter 5 --- Conclusion --- p.71
Chapter 5.1 --- Contributions --- p.71
Chapter 5.1.1 --- Extension of the DCCR algorithm --- p.71
Chapter 5.1.2 --- Examination of the MED criterion --- p.72
Chapter 5.1.3 --- Use of the FoE prior in postprocessing . . --- p.72
Chapter 5.1.4 --- Investigation on the quantization noise model --- p.73
Chapter 5.2 --- Future work --- p.73
Chapter 5.2.1 --- Degradation model --- p.73
Chapter 5.2.2 --- Efficient implementation of the MAP method --- p.74
Chapter 5.2.3 --- Postprocessing of compressed video --- p.75
Chapter A --- Detailed derivation of coefficient restoration --- p.76
Chapter B --- Implementation details of the FoE prior --- p.81
Chapter B.1 --- The FoE prior model --- p.81
Chapter B.2 --- Energy function and its gradient --- p.83
Chapter B.3 --- Conjugate gradient descent method --- p.84
Bibliography --- p.86
Bittens, Sina Vanessa. "Sparse Fast Trigonometric Transforms." Doctoral thesis, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/21.11130/00-1735-0000-0003-C16D-9.
Full textMehrotra, Abhishek. "Shape Adaptive Integer Wavelet Transform Based Coding Scheme For 2-D/3-D Brain MR Images." Thesis, 2004. http://etd.iisc.ernet.in/handle/2005/1171.
Full textJiang, Jianmin, and G. C. Feng. "The spatial relationship of DCT coefficients between a block and its sub-blocks." 2002. http://hdl.handle.net/10454/3446.
Full textAt present, almost all digital images are stored and transferred in their compressed format in which discrete cosine transform (DCT)-based compression remains one of the most important data compression techniques due to the efforts from JPEG. In order to save the computation and memory cost, it is desirable to have image processing operations such as feature extraction, image indexing, and pattern classifications implemented directly in the DCT domain. To this end, we present in this paper a generalized analysis of spatial relationships between the DCTs of any block and its sub-blocks. The results reveal that DCT coefficients of any block can be directly obtained from the DCT coefficients of its sub-blocks and that the interblock relationship remains linear. It is useful in extracting global features in compressed domain for general image processing tasks such as those widely used in pyramid algorithms and image indexing. In addition, due to the fact that the corresponding coefficient matrix of the linear combination is sparse, the computational complexity of the proposed algorithms is significantly lower than that of the existing methods.
Liu, Jian-Cheng, and 劉建成. "Multi-dimentional Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) Chip Design." Thesis, 2002. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/56071432152209136424.
Full textChung, Ming-Shen, and 鐘明聲. "FPGA Implementation of the Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) and the Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT)." Thesis, 2002. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/01456280849939764692.
Full text國立高雄第一科技大學
電腦與通訊工程所
90
The Discrete Fourier Transform(DFT)has been widely applied in communcation, speech processing, image processing, radar and sonar systems, etc. The architecture of DFT implement can be classified into two fields:(1)one is a pipelined systolic architecture,(2)the other is a memory-based architecture. Discrete Cosine Transform(DCT)has been commonly adopted in the various atandardsfor image compression while FPGA has become a new trend of ASIC design, so we will apply FPGA techinque to implement the DFT and the DCT. This thesis deals with how to use FPGA techinque to implement: (1)the pipelined systolic array architecture that requires log2N complex multipliers, 2log2N complex adders, 2log2N multiplexers, N delay elements and is able to provide a throughput of one transform sample per clock cycle; (2)the memory-based architecture that consists of three two-port RAM’s, one ROM, one complex multiplier, two complex adders, one multiplexer, and has capability of computing one transform sample every log2N+1 clock cycles on average; (3)Improved architecture in(2)under increasing little hardware that spends half of run time, i.e.N(log2N)/2; (4)2D-DFT that use architecture in(2)of 1D-DFT; (5)DCT operation and 2D-DCT operation.
Tsai, Sheng-Yuan, and 蔡聖源. "FPGA Implementation of modified 2-D Discrete Cosine Transforms." Thesis, 2002. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/74303204802939890101.
Full text國立高雄第一科技大學
電腦與通訊工程所
90
The two dimensional discrete cosine transform (2D-DCT) is widely used in digital signal processing, particularly for digital image processing in high speed transmission. There are two classes to realize in hardware structure, including the direct method, and the indirect method which is also called row-column method. It is more efficient for using the direct method. However, due to the computational complexity, the row-column method still has been adopted in the hardware implementation. In the indirect method, one dimensional of the rows or columns DCT coefficient are computed in advance. Then, a transpose matrix is obtained, and the elements of the transpose matrix are saved in a transpose matrix register. By the pivoting the elements of rows and columns, the one dimensional DCT of the transpose matrix is computed again. From performing twice one dimensional DCT transformations, then a two dimensional DCT has been formulated. The processing steps of one dimensional DCT are as follows: (1)Transform the DCT matrix into two 4*4 matrix. Then, change the elements of non-input data to 1’s complements. There 1’s complements have special weight individually. (2)Eight coefficient matrices. Based on these eight coefficient matrices have been obtained by above processing step. The partial products of all DCT coefficient can be found out. In the implementation of the circuit, only 26 adders are needed. (3)From this partial products, by means of adder_shift or 4-2 compressor tree circuit, we sum up all partial products by individual can be gained weight. Thus one dimensional DCT coefficients can be obtained. Compare the architecture of this method with New Distributed Arithmetic Architecture technique(NEDA) structure published in 2000. Our adder s of 1D DCT needed can be reduced from 35 to 26 in the same bit rate. If the hardware is designed in pipelined processing, the speed will be more promoted. The delay time is only equal to the delay of 4-2 compressor tree and an adder.
Chang, Chun-Hao, and 張峻豪. "Random Discrete Fractional Cosine and Sine Transforms with Applications." Thesis, 2015. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/78531034712466320492.
Full text中原大學
通訊工程碩士學位學程
103
In this thesis, we propose new transforms related to Random Discrete Fractional Cosine Transform and Random Discrete Fractional Sine Transform.They include the Real Random Discrete Fractional Cosine Transform and Real Random Discrete Fractional Sine Transform of types I、IV、V and VIII,which are real transforms of RDFRCT and RDFRST.We also propose the Random Generalized Discrete Fractional Fourier Transform and Random Generalized Discrete Fractional Hartley Transform matrices with reduced computations.They have the properties of fast algorithms,which reduce half computations of the RGDFRFT and RGDFRHT.These transforms are all random transforms so that they can be applied in image encryption and image watermarking.In image watermarking experiments,we find RDFRST of type VIII has the best robusteness.It can resist the largest region of cropping attack,such that it is the transform with best robusteness.
Cheng, Zhan-Yuan, and 程占遠. "Efficient Discrete Cosine Transforms for Advanced Video Coding Systems." Thesis, 2004. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/44057078250906825565.
Full text國立成功大學
電機工程學系碩博士班
92
This thesis focuses on the efficient implementation of the transform coding in video coding systems. It consists of two parts. In the first part, we propose a unified fixed-coefficient recursive structure for computing the general length discrete transforms. After regular preprocessing, the general discrete transforms are realized in a second-order infinite-impulse response (IIR) filter. The proposed recursive structure only requires half the recursive cycles and achieves more accurate results than the existing ones. The proposed algorithm can be applied to many popular transforms, such as subband synthesis filtering, inverse modified discrete cosine transform (IMDCT) and all discrete cosine transform (DCT) types. In the second part, high throughput hardware architectures for fast computation of the 4×4 transforms suggested in H.264 advanced video coders (AVC) are proposed. The proposed architectures could provide higher throughput rate and realize in a smaller chip area than the conventional row-column approaches. The proposed architectures are synthesized with TSMC 0.35 �慆 technology. The synthesized multiple transform architecture could process 800 M samples/sec at 100 MHz for all three transforms.
Chen, Che-Hong, and 陳奇宏. "Efficient Recursive Structures for Forward and Inverse Modified Discrete Cosine Transforms." Thesis, 2000. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/70164365153808374242.
Full text國立成功大學
電機工程學系
88
The MP3 audio format uses the MPEG-1 audio Layer 3, which is one of the most advanced MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group) standards for digital audio compression. The MPEG-1 audio Layer 3 has been widely used in internet and wireless communication and storage applications. The modified discrete cosine transform (MDCT) and its inverse transform (IMDCT) are the most complex operations in the MPEG-1 Layer 3 audio coding standard. In this thesis, we propose the new recursive structures for computing MDCT and IMDCT. This recursive structure is based on finite impulse response filters (IIR). We can use several IIR structures for concurrent computing MDCT and IMDCT components. The advantages of the proposed recursive IIR structure are rapid computational efficiency and high throughput rate. With regularity and modularity, the proposed recursive MDCT and IMDCT figured is suitable for VLSI implementation. In this thesis, we also realize a VLSI chip, which can perform both of the efficient recursion algorithms by using COMPASS 0.35µm high performance cell library with TSMC SPQM 0.35µm process technology. The realized VLSI takes about 7.5k gates in 2mm 2mm silicon area. The measurement result shows that the chip can work at about 50MHz clock rate.
Wei, Qing Huang, and 魏清煌. "A study on the implementations of discrete sine and cosine transforms." Thesis, 1995. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/63549551112012669131.
Full textHsu, Fang-Chii, and 許芳綺. "Efficient Memory Arrangement Methods and VLSI Implementations for Discrete Fourier and Cosine Transforms." Thesis, 2001. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/61599713560978766382.
Full text國立中山大學
資訊工程學系研究所
89
The thesis proposes using the efficient memory arrangement methods for the implementation of radix-r multi-dimensional Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) and Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT). By using the memory instead of the registers to buffer and reorder data, hardware complexity is significantly reduced. We use the recursive architecture that requires only one arithmetic-processing element to compute the entire DFT/DCT operation. The algorithm is based on efficient coefficient matrix factorization and data allocation. By exploiting the features of Kronecker product representation in the fast algorithm, the multi-dimensional DFT/DCT operation is converted into its corresponding 1-D problem and the intermediate data is stored in several memory units. In addition to the smaller area, we also propose a method to reduce the power consumption of the DFT/DCT processors.
Chen, Chien-Feng, and 陳建豐. "The Application of Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) Combined with the Nonlinear Regression Analysis on Optical Auto-Focusing." Thesis, 2008. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/15902479623677292509.
Full text國立高雄師範大學
物理學系
96
This research presents a fast and accurate real-time optical auto-focusing system, which utilizes a frequency component of the discrete cosine transform (DCT) as the focus measure. Besides, a nonlinear regression routine is combined in the algorithm to quickly move a rotational stepper motor to the best focus. The concise and effective algorithm can be applied to digital cameras, microscopes and optical inspection instruments.
Hsu, Yu-Hsin, and 徐友信. "A New Fast Algorithm for Computing the Forward and Inverse Modified Discrete Cosine Transforms." Thesis, 2001. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/82446174628541698698.
Full text國立交通大學
電機與控制工程系
89
In this thesis, we present two new algorithms for computing the inverse modified discrete cosine transform(IMDCT) such that the computation complexity is equal to but the numerical performance is better than existing fast algorithms. To compute N-point IMDCT, the first algorithm is realized in the following sequence: multiplication of the N/2 input data by an N/2-value cosine sequence, N/2-point fast DCT, and a simple recursive addition. The second algorithm, closely reversing the computation procedures of the first algorithm, is realized in order by simple recursive addition, N/2-point IDCT, and multiplication of the IDCT output by an N/2-value cosine sequence. MDCT realization can be simply obtained by transposing the signal flow graph for evaluating the IMDCT. For the proposed two IMDCT algorithms, we have analyzed the realization complexity and simulated the fixed-point error. Comparing with the existing fast IMDCT algorithms in literature, we observe from the analysis and simulation results that the new algorithms have better numerical accuracy and thus can be realized with short word length, resulting in more efficient realization.
Suresh, K. "MDCT Domain Enhancements For Audio Processing." Thesis, 2010. http://etd.iisc.ernet.in/handle/2005/1184.
Full textGupta, Pradeep Kumar. "Denoising And Inpainting Of Images : A Transform Domain Based Approach." Thesis, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/2005/515.
Full textAbhiram, B. "Characterization of the Voice Source by the DCT for Speaker Information." Thesis, 2014. http://etd.iisc.ernet.in/handle/2005/2894.
Full textJiang, Jianmin, and Y. Weng. "Video extraction for fast content access to MPEG compressed videos." 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10454/2785.
Full textAs existing video processing technology is primarily developed in the pixel domain yet digital video is stored in compressed format, any application of those techniques to compressed videos would require decompression. For discrete cosine transform (DCT)-based MPEG compressed videos, the computing cost of standard row-by-row and column-by-column inverse DCT (IDCT) transforms for a block of 8 8 elements requires 4096 multiplications and 4032 additions, although practical implementation only requires 1024 multiplications and 896 additions. In this paper, we propose a new algorithm to extract videos directly from MPEG compressed domain (DCT domain) without full IDCT, which is described in three extraction schemes: 1) video extraction in 2 2 blocks with four coefficients; 2) video extraction in 4 4 blocks with four DCT coefficients; and 3) video extraction in 4 4 blocks with nine DCT coefficients. The computing cost incurred only requires 8 additions and no multiplication for the first scheme, 2 multiplication and 28 additions for the second scheme, and 47 additions (no multiplication) for the third scheme. Extensive experiments were carried out, and the results reveal that: 1) the extracted video maintains competitive quality in terms of visual perception and inspection and 2) the extracted videos preserve the content well in comparison with those fully decompressed ones in terms of histogram measurement. As a result, the proposed algorithm will provide useful tools in bridging the gap between pixel domain and compressed domain to facilitate content analysis with low latency and high efficiency such as those applications in surveillance videos, interactive multimedia, and image processing.
Li, Hongliang. "Characterization of carotid artery plaques using noninvasive vascular ultrasound elastography." Thèse, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/1866/23538.
Full textAtherosclerosis is a complex vascular disease that affects artery walls (by thickening) and lumens (by plaque formation). The rupture of a carotid artery plaque may also induce ischemic stroke and complications. Despite the use of several medical imaging modalities to evaluate the stability of a plaque, they present limitations such as irradiation, invasive property, low clinical availability and high cost. Ultrasound is a safe imaging method with a real time capability for assessment of biological tissues. It is clinically used for early screening and diagnosis of carotid artery plaques. However, current vascular ultrasound technologies only identify the morphology of a plaque in terms of echo brightness or the impact of the vessel narrowing on flow properties, which may not be sufficient for optimum diagnosis. Noninvasive vascular elastography (NIVE) has been shown of interest for determining the stability of a plaque. Specifically, NIVE can determine the strain field of the moving vessel wall of a carotid artery caused by the natural cardiac pulsation. Due to Young’s modulus differences among different vessel tissues, different components of a plaque can be detected as they present different strains thereby potentially helping in characterizing the plaque stability. Currently, sub-optimum performance and computational efficiency limit the clinical acceptance of NIVE as a fast and efficient method for the early diagnosis of vulnerable plaques. Therefore, there is a need to further develop NIVE as a non-invasive, fast and low computational cost imaging tool to better characterize the plaque vulnerability. The procedure to perform NIVE analysis consists in image formation and image post-processing steps. This thesis aimed to systematically improve the accuracy of these two aspects of NIVE to facilitate predicting carotid plaque vulnerability. The first effort of this thesis has been targeted on improving the image formation (Chapter 5). Transverse oscillation beamforming was introduced into NIVE. The performance of transverse oscillation imaging coupled with two model-based strain estimators, the affine phase-based estimator (APBE) and the Lagrangian speckle model estimator (LSME), were evaluated. For all simulations and in vitro studies, the LSME without transverse oscillation imaging outperformed the APBE with transverse oscillation imaging. Nonetheless, comparable or better principal strain estimates could be obtained with the LSME using transverse oscillation imaging in the case of complex and heterogeneous tissue structures. During the acquisition of ultrasound signals for image formation, out-of-plane motions which are perpendicular to the two-dimensional (2-D) scan plane are existing. The second objective of this thesis was to evaluate the influence of out-of-plane motions on the performance of 2-D NIVE (Chapter 6). For this purpose, we designed an in vitro experimental setup to simulate out-of-plane motions of 1 mm, 2 mm and 3 mm. The in vitro results showed more strain estimation artifacts for the LSME with increasing magnitudes of out-of-plane motions. Even so, robust strain estimations were nevertheless obtained with 2.0 mm out-of-plane motion (correlation coefficients higher than 0.85). For a clinical dataset of 18 participants with carotid artery stenosis, we proposed to use two datasets of scans on the same carotid plaque, one cross-sectional and the other in a longitudinal view, to deduce the out-of-plane motions (estimated to be ranging from 0.25 mm to 1.04 mm). Clinical results showed that strain estimations remained reproducible for all motion magnitudes since inter-frame correlation coefficients were higher than 0.70, and normalized cross-correlations between radiofrequency images were above 0.93, which indicated that confident motion estimations can be obtained when analyzing clinical dataset of carotid plaques using the LSME. Finally, regarding the image post-processing component of NIVE algorithms to estimate strains of vessel walls from reconstructed images with the objective of identifying soft and hard tissues, we developed a strain estimation method with a pixel-wise resolution as well as a high computation efficiency for improving NIVE (Chapter 7). We proposed a sparse model strain estimator (SMSE) for which the dense strain field is parameterized with Discrete Cosine Transform descriptions, thereby deriving affine strain components (axial and lateral strains and shears) without mathematical derivative operations. Compared with the LSME, the SMSE reduced estimation errors in simulations, in vitro and in vivo tests. Moreover, the sparse implementation of the SMSE reduced the processing time by a factor of 4 to 25 compared with the LSME based on simulations, in vitro and in vivo results, which is suggesting a possible implementation of NIVE in real time.