A LOW-POWER ENCODER FOR PYRAMID VECTOR QUANTIZATION OF SUBBAND COEFFICIENTS

A real-time, low-power video encoder design for pyramid vector quantiz ation (PVQ) has been presented. The quantizer is estimated to dissipat e only 2.1 mW for real-time video compression of images of 256 x 256 p ixels at 30 frames per second in standard 0.8-micron CMOS technology w ith a 1.5 V supply. Applying this quantizer to subband decomposed imag es, the quantizer performs better than JPEG on average. We achieve thi s high level of power efficiency with image quality exceeding that of variable rate codes through algorithmic and architectural reformulatio n. The PVQ encoder is well-suited for wireless, portable communication applications.