Fractal Audio Coding
Henry Xiao · 2005
We explore the performance of applying fractal coding on audio data. Some con-ventional fractal coding problems have been studied with audio data to provide an overview on this subject. A review of fractal coding is presented. We implement a fractal audio coding scheme to carry out the experiments. The performance of the scheme can be con-trolled by a number of different parameters, including mapping tolerance, scaling factor, partition range, domain specification, and bit allocation. Empirical results have been obtained from experimenting on various audio data in our testing set un-der different parameter combinations. Some conclusions and suggestions have been made by analyzing and comparing experimental results. The study leads us to con-clude that fractal coding is not an appropriate model to be applied alone to complex audio data. A major barrier is the inability to represent smooth continuous functions. With the new trend of integrating some other methods in fractal coding research, we discuss some future aspects of fractal audio coding, and some possible improve-ments by combining it with other techniques such as wavelet transforms. i Acknowledgments I am very grateful to this experience of doing the research and writing up this thesis which leads me into this challenging but fascinating research world. I would also take this opportunity to thank: • My supervisor, Dr. David Rappaport, who not only gave me the chance to be his master student, but also trusted in me by leaving me the freedom to pursue my research with my interests. • My co-supervisor, Dr. Henk Meijer, who taught me to make the research life fun, and frequently distracted me from my research with many of his fruitful new ideas. • School of Computing, where I found myself in the research atmosphere, and really enjoyed to be part of it. • My parents, without whom I would never be here, and especially my grandma, who sacrificed so much to give me a better life. • School of Graduate Studies&Research for awarding me scholarship which funds my studies here. ii