Quantum JPEG

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