An effieient algorithm for fractal image coding using kick-out and zero contrast conditions

In this paper, we propose a fast algorithm for fractal image coding based on a single kick-out condition and the zero contrast prediction. The single kick-out condition can eliminate lots of unmatched domain blocks in the early encoding phase. An efficient method based on the zero contrast prediction is also proposed, which can determine whether the contrast factor for a domain block is zero or not and compute the corresponding difference between the range block and the transformed domain block efficiently and exactly. The proposed algorithm can achieve the same reconstructed image quality as the exhaustive search, and can greatly reduce the required computational complexity. In addition, this algorithm does not need any preprocessing step and additional memory for its implementation, and can combine with other fast fractal algorithms to further improve the speed. Experimental results show that the runtime is reduced by about 50% when compared to the exhaustive search method. The runtime can be reduced by about 75% when our algorithm is combined with the DCT Inner Product algorithm.