Fractal Compression

[P3D Dylan The Hippy Wabbit <spacey@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Mike K. writes

>What ever became of the company coming out with fractal compression that
>was supposed to REALLY compress images but with good fidelity?  Haven't
>heard much from them lately.  Must be more than five years since they had
>their 15-minutes in the national limelight.

It's still around.  Check out "http://www.iterated.com/".  Another good
site is "http://inls.ucsd.edu/y/Fractals/".

What follows is my opinion rather than solid fact, but I'd say they goofed
on the marketing front.  The first I saw of them outside the fractal books
they were trying to charge money for the *demo!*  Then it took quite some
time for them to release the free viewer which is almost essential for
quick public acceptance.  By then JPEG had reached critical mass.  'Nuff
said.

Neotek may like to contemplate that.  ;-)

I'm not sure it would be much use for stereo work though.  The random
element which is a necessary part of the decompressor could well lead to
conflicts.  Certainly fractal compressed videos are said to flicker in the
stationary areas.

Dave Spacey

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When you break rules break 'em good and hard.   - Terry Pratchett


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