FRACTAL BASED APPROACH TO IMAGE COMPRESSION.

An approach to image coding is presented that is based on the theory of fractal geometry. The idea is to traverse the entire data string utilizing a fixed length 'yardstick'. The coding is achieved by transmitting only the sign bit (to distinguish between the ascent and the descent) and the horizontal distance covered by the 'yardstick'. All data values are estimated at the receivers site, on the basis of this information. The approach can be utilized for classification of the image complexity and can be used directly for the image compression. The tradeoff between the resolution and quantization errors is easily controlled and a good utilization of human visual characteristics is achieved. Even at the present preliminary stage, excellent quality images have been obtained with as few as 0. 5 b/pel.