Energy efficient adaptive video compression scheme for WVSNs

This paper presents an energy efficient adaptive video compression scheme dedicated to wireless video sensor networks. This scheme based on the recent H.264/AVC standard operates using two modes, namely the standby mode and the rush mode. In the standby mode, frame rate is limited while image quality is maintained to a high level. In the rush mode, the frame rate is increased and the Flexible Macroblock Ordering coding tool provided by the H.264/AVC video compression standard is used to produce two service-differentiated macroblocks categories: region of interest (ROI) and background (BKGD). In addition, bit rate adaptation based on frequency selectivity is applied to reduce background data amount. Hence, transmission energy consumption is decreased while maintaining a high quality for ROI. Simulations proved the energy efficiency of the proposed scheme that enables to extend network´s lifetime up to three times, and achieves high quality ROIs even at low bit rates.