Fractal Image Compression: Theory and Application [Paperback]

One half of the book is authored by Yuval Fisher himself, while articles from another 12 experts in the field present material from different points of view. The focus here is solely on fractal image encoding, with the aim of providing a working code that is usable in applications, while containing the complete details of how to encode and decode images. An indispensable how to guide, combining the very latest results in the field. Of interest to a very wide audience, ranging from experts in image processing to high school students.What is Fractal Image Compression, anyway? You will have to read the book to find out everything about it, and if you read the book, you really will find out almost everything that is currently known about it. In a sentence or two: fractal image compression is a method, or class of methods, that allows images to be stored on computers in much less memory than standard ways of storing images. The fractal part means that the methods have something to do with fractals, complicated looking sets that arise out of simple algorithms. This book contains a collection of articles on fractal image compression. Beginners will find simple explanations, working C code, and exercises to check their progress. Mathematicians will find a rigorous and detailed development of the subject. Non-mathematicians will find a parallel intuitive discussion that explains what is behind all the theorem-proofs. Finally, researchers - even researchers in fractal image compression - will find new and exciting results, both theoretical and applied. Here is a brief synopsis of each chapter: Chapter 1 contains a simple introduction aimed at the lay reader. It uses almost no math but explains all the main concepts of a fractal encoding/decoding scheme, so that the interested reader can write his or her own code. Chapter 2 has a rigorous mathematical description of iterated function systems and their gen? eralizations for image encoding. An informallÄ