Neural and genetic approximations of fractal error

Fractal error is an image processing metric that can be used to locate man-made features in aerial images. The main disadvantage of the fractal error algorithm is that it can take several seconds to compute on large images. Therefore, it is desirable to create an approximation of fractal error to provide real-time analysis. This paper presents two novel approximations of fractal error using a genetic algorithm and a neural network. The results obtained using the approximations are compared with those obtained from the fractal error algorithm. Results from the neural network and the genetic algorithm are compared with one another. The neural network provides and accurate representation of fractal error, while the genetic algorithm does in fact preserve all of the desired features of the original fractal error image. The genetic algorithm has been shown to be computationally faster than the neural network