Energy efficient image coding techniques for low power sensor nodes: A review

Abstract

Visual Sensors Networks (VSN) are spatially dispersed distributed networks, consisting of small sensing units and image sensors. They are scattered over a region to sense, collect and transfer data and are involved in domains such as environmental monitoring, surveillance and tracking. The resource restrictions imposed on sensor nodes are the challenges for image transmission. Sensor nodes are battery power supplied. The greatest operative solution is image compression for energy efficient image communication. With the advent of VSNs, energy-aware compression algorithms have gained wide attention. Since the application of the conventional standards are not energy beneficial. New strategies and mechanisms for power-efficient image compression algorithms are developed. The scope of this review is to provide a holistic review of such energy efficient image compression algorithms for camera equipped VSN. This survey enumerates the benefits and limitations of conventional image compression standards to latest compression technique developed and adapted for VSN. Keywords: Image compression techniques, DCT, DWT, Wireless sensor networks, VSN, Entropy coding