A new image coding technique unifying fractal and transform coding

We present a new image coding scheme based on an unification of fractal and transform coding. We introduce a generalization of the luminance transformation generally used by fractal coding schemes. By extending the luminance transformation to the frequency domain fractal and transform coding become subsets of the proposed transformation. Our new coding scheme FTC (fractal based transform coding) combines the advantages of both techniques. Compared to JPEG a coding gain of 1.5-2.5 dB (PSNR) is obtained. The encoding time is reduced compared to conventional fractal coding schemes and a better convergence at the decoder is attained. At equal error rates the subjective quality of images coded with the new scheme is superior compared to transform coded images.<>