Manipulation and Presentation of Multidimensional Image Data Using the Peano Scan

A fractal curve first discussed by Giuseppe Peano has useful statistical properties in image processing. The curve can act as a transform between a line and n-dimensional space retaining some of the spatially associative properties of the space. Applications of the curve include multispectral image display, compression in the color and spa-tial domain, classification, and color display. The technique enables the display of high quality color images on a frame store capable of displaying only 256 colors simultaneously. A logically ordered and complete set of colors for false color work can be selected. An im-provement in compression by about 3X for color images can be ob-tained by using this method in conjunction with an existing spatial compression technique. A simple algorithm for constructing the curves is shown.