Fractal image compression

Abstract

Conventional image compression strategies present a number of uncomfortable limitations. Many of the impediments can be overcome by Fractal Image Compression (FIC). FIC is rooted strongly in mathematics. In comparison to traditional images compression strategies, FIC outperforms them by far when looking at compression ratios. FIC is thus an attractive compression scheme for the users and implementors of Multimedia and other graphical environments. Presently FIC has a number of irritating implementation difficulties, but since its foundation is sound, we believe it is a matter of research before these will be solved. In this article we will give a brief description of the mathematical background involved in FIC, and show how the mathe­matics are used to achieve the compression. Our aim is to present the material in a form understandable to most scientists. We also discuss some of the open problems in the field.