Fractals: not just another pretty picture

The reduction of imagery to a set of fractals as a way to achieve greatly improved image compression is examined. A practical system that took about 100 hours to compress a 780-by-1024-pixel image, but achieved compression ratios greater than 1000 to 1, was demonstrated. The performance of the approach and the extent of its applicability are discussed. Some military applications of fractals are briefly discussed.<
>