PALQA: A Novel Parameterized Position-Aware Lossy Quantum Autoencoder using LSB Control Qubit for Efficient Image Compression

With the growing interest in quantum computing, quantum image processing technology has become a vital research field due to its versatile applications and ability to outperform classical computing. A quantum autoencoder approach has been used for compression purposes. However, existing autoencoders are limited to small-scale images, and the mechanisms of state compression remain unclear. There is also a need for efficient quantum autoencoders using standard representation approaches and for studying parameterized position-aware control qubits and their corresponding quality measurement metrics. This work introduces a novel parameterized position-aware lossy quantum autoencoder (PALQA) circuit that utilizes the least significant bit control qubit for image compression. The PALQA circuit employs a transformed coefficient block-based modified state connection approach to efficiently compress images at various resolutions. The method leverages compression opportunities in the state-label connection by applying position-aware least significant control qubit. Compared to JPEG and other enhanced quantum representation-based quantum autoencoders, the PALQA circuit demonstrates superior performance in terms of the number of gates required and PSNR metrics.