Fractal Image Compression

Recently I was very interested for fractal image compression. Read about it on Wikipedia (fractals, fractals compression). I start surfing web to look for images compressed with this algorithm and the first image i found was on the www.steckles.com. Author was made a comparison between three image compression algorithms Vector Quantization, Fractal Compression and JPEG. His conclusion was too easy: "Stick with Jpeg, unless you really like bad image quality and long waits". The only thing I don't like in those article was that the examples of images were without evidence of the image size. Here you can find my own dilettantish test :).

Uncompressed image (RAW format 256x256 pix, 8 bit, 64 kb)

JPEG compressed image (JPEG format 256x256 pix, 8 bit, 23 kb)
it was the maximum compression I was obtain of JPEG format

Fractal compressed image (Fractal compression 256x256 pix, 8 bit, 7 kb)

Conclusion:

Yes, fractal compression is very slowly today, especially for big images, but it is easy to see the potential. You can see by sight, a difference in image size and it's quality. I think it is having prospects.  In this little experiment I was compress source image in 9 times. Wikipedia says it will be possible to compress image up to 1000 times without catastrophical loss in quality. Will see :).