A fast and efficient hybrid fractal-wavelet image coder

The excellent visual quality and compression rate of fractal image coding have limited applications due to exhaustive inherent encoding time. This paper presents a new fast and efficient image coder that applies the speed of the wavelet transform to the image quality of the fractal compression. Fast fractal encoding using Fisher´s domain classification is applied to the lowpass subband of wavelet transformed image and a modified set partitioning in hierarchical trees (SPIHT) coding, on the remaining coefficients. Furthermore, image details and wavelet progressive transmission characteristics are maintained, no blocking effects from fractal techniques are introduced, and the encoding fidelity problem common in fractal-wavelet hybrid coders is solved. The proposed scheme promotes an average of 94% reduction in encoding-decoding time comparing to the pure accelerated Fractal coding results. The simulations also compare the results to the SPIHT wavelet coding. In both cases, the new scheme improves the subjective quality of pictures for high-medium-low bitrates.