Fast zonal DCT for energy conservation in wireless image sensor networks

The problem of energy conservation in wireless image sensor networks is addressed, and a fast zonal discrete consine transform (DCT) design which aims to decrease the complexity of JPEG baseline compression is presented. Energy consumption measurements have been made on a real wireless camera node in order to evaluate the amount of energy which can be saved during the image compression process without loss of visual quality. Although the gain depends on the compression rate, such a DCT design is a simple and effective way to prolong the lifetime of the camera nodes, and thereby the network lifetime.