In this thesis we present an overview of image processing techniques which use fractal methods in some way. We show how these fields relate to each other, and examine various aspects of fractal methods in each area.
The three principal fields of image processing and analysis th a t we examine are texture classification, image segmentation and image coding.
In the area of texture classification, we examine fractal dimension estimators, comparing these methods to other methods in use, and to each other. We attempt to explain why differences arise between various estimators of the same quantity. We also examine texture generation methods which use fractal dimension to generate textures of varying complexity.
We examine how fractal dimension can contribute to image segmentation methods. We also present an in-depth analysis of a novel segmentation scheme based on fractal coding.
Finally, we present an overview of fractal and wavelet image coding, and the links between the two. We examine a possible scheme involving both fractal and wavelet methods.