Advances in block based fractal coding of still pictures

Fractal coding is a new technique for compressing images, which exploits similarities in different parts of the picture. For example, with a picture of a fern one can see easily where these similarities lie, each fern leaf resembling a smaller fern. With a more general picture it is not as obvious where these similarities lie. That is because attention is dominated by the macroscopic detail in the picture. If the picture is examined at a microscopic level by blocking the picture into 4×4 pixel blocks, then the 4×4 blocks show remarkable similarities: blocks that are predominantly flat, blocks with an edge across them, and so forth