Quantum JPEG

Abstract

The JPEG algorithm compresses a digital image by filtering its high spatial-frequency components. Similarly, we introduce a quantum algorithm that uses the quantum Fourier transform to discard the high spatial-frequency qubits of an image, downsampling it to a lower resolution. This allows one to capture, compress, and send images even with limited quantum resources for storage and communication. We show under which conditions this protocol is advantageous with respect to its classical counterpart.