We propose successively refinable trellis-coded quantizers for progressive
transmission, (Progressive transmission is an essential component of image
and multimedia browsing systems.) A new trellis structure which is scalable
is used in the design of our trellis-coded quantizers. A hierarchical set
partitioning is developed to preserve successive refinability. Two algorith
ms for designing trellis-coded quantizers which provide embedded bit stream
s are provided. The computational complexity of the proposed schemes is com
pared with that of trellis-coded quantization. Simulation results show exce
llent performances for memoryless sources.