Interest in multiresolution techniques for signal processing and analysis is increasing steadily. An important instance of such a technique is the so-called pyramid decomposition scheme. This paper presents a general theory for constructing linear as well as nonlinear pyramid decomposition schemes for signal analysis and synthesis. The proposed theory is based on the following ingredients: 1) the pyramid consists of a (finite or infinite) number of levels such that the information content decreases toward higher levels and 2) each step toward a higher level is implemented by an (information-reducing) analysis operator, whereas each step toward a lower level is implemented by an (information-preserving) synthesis operator One basic assumption is necessary: synthesis followed by analysis yields the identity operator, meaning that no information is lost by these two consecutive steps. Several examples of pyramid decomposition schemes are shown to be instances of the proposed theory: a particular class of linear pyramids, morphological skeleton decompositions, the morphological Haar pyramid, median pyramids, etc. Furthermore, the paper makes a distinction between single-scale and multiscale decomposition schemes, i.e., schemes without or with sample reduction. Finally, the proposed theory provides the foundation of a general approach to constructing nonlinear wavelet decomposition schemes and filter banks, which will be discussed in a forthcoming paper.
