An improved box-counting method for image fractal dimension estimation

Fractal dimension (FD) is a useful feature for texture segmentation, shape classification, and graphic analysis in many fields. The box-counting approach is one of the frequently used techniques to estimate the FD of an image. This paper presents an efficient box-counting-based method for the improvement of FD estimation accuracy. A new model is proposed to assign the smallest number of boxes to cover the entire image surface at each selected scale as required, thereby yielding more accurate estimates. The experiments using synthesized fractional Brownian motion images, real texture images, and remote sensing images demonstrate this new method can outperform the well-known differential boxing-counting (DBC) method. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.