With the rise of neural networks again and their applications to image coding

a new approach to image data compression is developed.This paper expounds the neural network models and the learning algorithms with applications to image coding

the corresponding accomplishments and advances.Some unsolved fundamental theoretical problems

such as the principle of image data compression with neural networks

and the classification of the neural networks based image coding methods etc.are discussed.Finally

the prospects for the areas deserving of further research are given.