This paper was presented in the 1st IEEE EMBS conference on Neural Engineering, March, 2003.

Wavelet Based Estimation of the Fractal

Dimension in fBm Images
Carlos Parra, Khan Iftekharuddin, David Rendon
AbstractFractional Brownian Motion (fBm) has been
successfully exploited to model an important number of
physical phenomena and non-stationary processes such
as medical images. These mathematical models closely
describe essential properties of natural phenomena, such as
self-similarity, scale invariance and fractal dimension. The
use of wavelet analysis combined with fBm analysis may
provide an interesting approach to compute key values for
fBm processes, such as the fractal dimension D. In this
paper we propose two approaches to calculate the Hurst
Coefcient H (and hence D) for both one-dimensional
and two-dimensional signals. The rst approach is based
on statistical properties of the signals, while the second
one is based on their spectral characteristics. A formal
extension to 2-D processes is developed and implemented,
and a comparison of both is presented. The proposed
algorithms are tested using tomographic brain tumor data.
Our simulation experiments offer promising results in the
location of such lesions.
I. INTRODUCTION
In the analysis of tomographic medical images, the
presence of randomness in the acquired data, derived
from the imaging modality procedure, noise, and the
nature of the analyzed tissue itself, has been modeled
in terms of texture. This problem is common to other
sciences in which the description of the specic study
object requires the consideration of self similar structures
and ruggedness. The fundamental theory that support
this models is owed fundamentally to B. B. Mandelbrot,
whose work with J. W. Ness on Fractional Brownian
Motions in [1] and his formulation of the fractal theory
concepts [2], provided the work frame required for the
modeling of such problems. One of the most usual
applications of this theory was the creation of algorithms
leading to the simulation of different fractal motions,
being the Brownian motion the closest in the graphical
simulation of structures normally seen in nature [4],
or in biomedical imaging. From the signal processing
analysis point of view, an extensive research work has
been leaded by Flandrin [5][6], particularly in the eld
of spectrum computation and parameter estimation of
stochastic processes obeying fractional power laws.
Texture analysis of natural scenes described through
fBm, was greatly enhanced with the development of
both Wavelet Analysis as well as the Mallats Wavelet
Multiresolution Analysis [7][8], whose concepts are very
close in nature to the descriptions of fractal science, and
allowed scientists and engineers to derive a common
signal processing ground, in which the statistical and
spectral and properties of the fBms can be exploited
to estimate fractal parameters analyze an so model and
measure the texture content of a specic image. This
joint study of fractals and wavelets has lead to the
development of methods and models to analyze frac-
tional power law processes. An important contribution
in the formulation of a 2-D model is proposed by
Heneghan [9], who describes both the spectral properties
and correlation function of an fBm, and proposes a
method to estimate the FD using the statistical properties
of the Continuous Wavelet Transform (CWT) of an fBm.
Wornell [10] gives a detailed demonstration on how
1/f processes can be optimally represented in terms of
orthonormal wavelet bases, which opens the possibility
to the use of discrete wavelet transforms in the present
article.
Given the non-stationary character of fBm processes,
alternative methods have been developed to estimate
the spectral. In [13], WEN, C. et al. propose a 1-D
approach to estimate H. Grassin and Garello provide
also a 2-D model using Wigner-Ville methods and a
discrete version for the Discrete Time Frequency Wigner
Ville Distribution (WVD) as a mathematical support for
experiments with Synthetic Aperture Radar. These au-
thors describe the problems related to interference terms
or cross-terms generated in the WVD algorithm, but a
tentative solution of these is presented by Min Y. et al
[14]. Although the numerical analysis of measurements
using WVD tend to suggest the inappropriateness of the
traditional FFT spectral estimation as a valid method
for the study of fBm processes, the high computational
efciency this algorithm is exploited and a meaningful
results are derived from it.
The fundamental goal of this study is the formulation
and evaluation of algorithms leading to an accurate and
reliable method for identication and location of brain
tumors, considering the texture measurements associated
to different areas of a given tomographic image, in terms
of the Hurst parameter H or the Fractal Dimension
D. For the implementation of this system, synthetic
images are generated and to test the algorithms. The
formal development of a 2-D model for the spectral
estimation of these values is derived presented, as well as
experimental results regarding particular image modali-
ties. A comparison of spectral estimation methods such
as Wigner-Ville Description and traditional spectrum
estimation is also considered, as well as a 2-D statistical
method. Tomographic brain images are analyzed with
each algorithm and a comparison is nally performed.
II. FRACTIONA BROWNIAN MOTION BACKGROUND
Fractional Brownian Motions (fBm) are part of the set
of 1/f processes. They are non-stationary zero-mean
Gaussian random functions, dened as [1], [2], [3]
BH(0) = 0
BH(t) BH(s) =
1
(H + 0.5)
(1)

(t s)
H0.5
s
H0.5

dB(s)
+

0
(t s)
H0.5
dB(s)

where B
H
(s) is an ordinary Brownian motion and the
Hurst coefcient H is the parameter that characterizes
fBm
1
, with the restriction 0 < H < 1.
fBms are not stationary processes, but their increments
are stationary and self-similar [3]. This characteristics
suggest that the use of time-frequency signal decom-
position techniques, such as multiresolution analysis or
Wigner-Ville time-frequency descriptions [5] are appro-
priate. These lead to a framework for the computation of
the H coefcient, which can be used to compute directly
the fractal dimension of the related process [4] according
to
D = E + 1 H (2)
where E is the Euclidean dimension that contains the
fBm (i.e. the position of each point of the process is
described with the vector x = (x
1
, . . . , x
E
)).
1
In this sense, fBms are actually a generalization of the ordinary
Brownian motion.
III. VARIANCE METHOD
In this section, the statistical properties of the fBm are
dened and their implications considered. In subsequent
subsections, the description of 1-D and 2-D models,
as well as an algorithm for the estimation of the H
coefcient are presented.
In general, fBms are non-stationary processes, given that
the associated correlation function is not exclusively a
function of the difference of observation times, but is
dened as [5]
rB
H
(t, s) = E [BH(t)BH(s)] (3)
=
VH
2

|t|
2H
+|s|
2H
|t s|
2H

, 0 < H < 1,
with
V
H
= (1 2H)
cos(H)
H
, (4)
a function only of the Hurst coefcient. Being non-
stationary means that an fBm cannot be associated a
spectrum by the use of a standard spectral density and
that alternative techniques are needed to estimate the
power content of these signals.
Despite this non-stationary character, the increments of
the fBm processes are stationary, as can be seen in
their variance function, which depend only on the time
interval between the observations [6]:
E
_
|B
H
(t) B
H
(s)|
2
_
= V
H
(t s)
2H
(5)
with V
H
dened as in (4).
fBm increments are also self-similar, as stated in the
equality of probability distributions at any scale [6].
B
H
(t +) B
H
(t) =
H
B
H
(t). (6)
The previous properties can be extended to any dimen-
sion. In particular for 2-D, let B(

u ) be an fBm, where

u corresponds to the position (u

x
, u
y
) of a point in in
a 2-D process obeying the following rules [9]:
The process is non-stationary given that its correlation
is not simply a function of |

v |
rB
H
(

u ,

v ) = E [BH(

u )BH(

v )] (7)
=
VH
2

u |
2H
+|

v |
2H
|

v |
2H

.
The increments of the process B(

u ) = B(

u +

u )
B(

u ) form a stationary, zero-mean Gaussian process.

The variance of the increments B(

u ) depends only
on the distance u =
_
u
2
x
+ u
2
y
, so
E
_
|B
H
(

u )|
2
_
u
H
. (8)
These properties are central to the denition of a pro-
cedure based on wavelet analysis, as described in the
following subsections.
A. 1-D Case
The essential cause of non-stationarity in fBms is con-
centrated in the low frequencies [6]. When the fBm is
decomposed using a multiresolution analysis, the low
and high frequency components can be separated in
a non-stationary approximation and a stationary detail
part, given the low-pass and band-pass character of the
respective analyzing wavelets.
For a specic approximation resolution 2
J
, the multires-
olution representation [7] of an fBm process is
B
H
(t) = 2
J/2

n
a
J
[n](2
J
t n) (9)
+

j
2
j/2

n
nd
j
[n](2
j
t n),
with j = J, ..., and n = , ..., . The basic
wavelet satises the admissibility condition
_

(t)dt = 0 (10)
and the orthonormal wavelet decomposition of the fBm
at resolution j is [6]:
d
j
[n] = 2
j/2
_

B
H
(t)(2
j
t n)dt. (11)
Considering the denition of E[B(t)B(s)] in (3) and
also the admissibility condition in (11), it can be said that
the variance of the detail wavelet coefcients is related
to the specic analyzing wavelet and the H coefcient
of the fBm processes as [6]:
E
_
|d
j
[n]|
2
_
=
V
H
2
V

(H)(2
j
)
2H+1
(12)
where V

(H) is the scale-independent and depends only

on the selected mother wavelet (t) and the value of H
[5]. Dening = t s,
V

(H) =
_

(t)(s)dt ||
2H
d (13)
which is an inner product that generates a constant value.
By applying logarithm in both sides of equation (12),
the following linear equation is obtained [11]
log
2
E
_
|d
j
[n]|
2
_
= (2H + 1)j +C
1
(14)
with
C
1
= log
2
V
H
2
V

(H). (15)
The Hurst coefcient (and the dimension) of a fBm
process can be calculated from the slope of this variance,
plotted as a function of the resolution in a log-log plot.
B. 2-D Case
The wavelet lter used to obtain the details equation
for the high frequency part, both in x and y, and at an
specic resolution j, corresponds to Theorem 4 in [7],
which is presented in Appendix ??.
Taking equation (11) as a reference to extend the deni-
tion of the detail coefcients, at resolution j, to the 2-D
case, it can be shown that for (n, m) Z
2
,
D
3
2
j
[n, m] =
_
2
j
_

B
H
(x, y)
3
2
j
(x 2
j
n, y 2
j
m)dxdy
_
(16)
or equivalently
D
3
2
j
[

] =
_
2
j
_

B
H
(

u )
3
2
j
(

u 2
j
)d

u
_
(Z
2
)
(17)
where corresponds to the position [n, m] and
3
2
j
satises the admissibility condition
_

3
2
j (x, y)dxdy = 0. (18)
The variance function of the detail coefcients in equa-
tion (17) is obtained following a similar process to the
continuous wavelet approach described by Heneghan in
[9] (see Appendix B ??):
E
_

D
3
2
j
[

2
_
= 2
2j
_

u
_

v
_

3
2
j
(

u 2
j
) (19)

3
2
j
(

v 2
j
)E [B(

u )B(

v )]
_
d

u d

v .
Considering the denition of the covariance function of
a process in (7), the previous equation can be written as
E
_

D
3
2
j
[

2
_
=
V
H
2
2
2j

_
_

u
_

v

3
2
j
(

u 2
j
)
3
2
j
(

v 2
j
) |

u |
2H
d

u d

v +
_

u
_

v

3
2
j
(

u 2
j
)
3
2
j
(

v 2
j
) |

v |
2H
d

u d

v +
_

u
_

v

3
2
j
(

u 2
j
)
3
2
j
(

v 2
j
) |

v |
2H
d

u d

v
_
(20)
or equivalently
E
_

D
3
2
j
[

2
_
=
V
H
2
2
2j

_
_

u

3
2
j
(

v 2
j
)d

v
_

v

3
2
j
(

u 2
j
) |

u |
2H
d

u +
_

u

3
2
j
(

u 2
j
)d

u
_

v

3
2
j
(

v 2
j
) |

v |
2H
d

v +
_

u
_

v

3
2
j
(

u 2
j
)
3
2
j
(

v 2
j
) |

v |
2H
d

u d

v
_
.
(21)
Given that
3
2
j
meets the admissibility condition (18),
_

3
2
j
(

v 2
j
)d

v =
_

3
2
j
(

u 2
j
)d

u = 0 (22)
so, (19) can be written as
E
_

D
3
2
j
[

2
_
=
V
H
2
2
2j

3
2
j
(

u 2
j
)
_

u
_

v

3
2
j
(

v 2
j
) |

v |
2H
d

u d

v
_
.
(23)
By substituting

p =

u

v and

q =

v 2
j
,
Eq. (19) can be stated as
E
_

D
3
2
j
[

p ,

q ]

2
_
=
V
H
2
2
j(2H+2)
_

p
_

q
_

3
2
j
(

p +

q )

3
2
j
(

q ) |

p |
2H
d

p d

q
_
(24)
showing an integrand independent of the scale 2
j
. Let
V

3
2
be dened as [11]
V

3
2
=
_

p
_

3
2
j
(

p +

q )
3
2
j
(

q ) |

p |
2H
d

p d

q (25)
so, the integral in q is the wavelet transform of the
wavelet itself at a resolution j, in the same way that
(13). The variance of D
3
2
j
[n, m] is hence a power law of
the scale 2
j
and can be used to calculate H in a similar
way to (14)
log
2
E
_

D
3
2
j [n, m]

2
_
= (2H + 2)j +C
2
(26)
with
C
2
= log
2
V
H
2
V

3
2
j
(H). (27)
The dimension of the fBm can be extracted from the
slope of equation (26) in a log-log plot.
C. Algorithm
VARIANCE ALGORITHM FOR THE CALCULATION
OF HURST COEFFICIENT
V arianceFD(M
0
, N, Wavelet)
M
0
is the matrix that corresponds to the
input image (formats .jpg, .tif, .gif) with
an appropriate colormap.
Wavelet is the analyzing wavelet filter.
N is the desired level of Multi-Resolution
decomposition steps.
1) for j = 1 : N {
a) Compute a multiresolution
decomposition of the signal at several
resolutions 2
j
according to Eqs. (11)
and (16).
b) Compute the variance for the
D
3
2
j
matrix at each resolution 2
j
.
c) Compute the base-2 logarithm of the
previous result.
}
2) Compute the slope of the resulting
equations using the pairs
_
j, log
2
_
var
_
D
3
2
j
___
obtained from Eqs. (12)
and (14).
3) Derive the value of H from the slope
values of the previous step.
IV. POWER SPECTRUM METHOD
Some of the most frequently seen structures in fractal
geometry, generally known as 1/f processes, show a
power spectrum obeying the power law relationship
S()
k
||

(28)
where corresponds to the spatial frequency, and =
2H+1 . This kind of spectrum is associated to statistical
properties that are reected in a scaling behavior (self-
similarity), in which the process is statistically invariant
to dilations or contractions, as described in the equation
S() = |a|

S
X
(a). (29)
A. 1-D Case
Another approach to the computation of the fractal di-
mension of an fBm uses the wavelet representation of its
power spectrum. In [5], Flandrin shows that the spectrum
of an fBm follows the power law of fractional order
shown in (28), using either a time-frequency description
or a scale-time description.
If the frequency signal S() is ltered with a wavelet l-
ter (u), the resulting spectrum at the specic resolution
is [7]
S
2
j () = S()

_
2
j

2
(30)
with

() = e
i
H( +) (31)
where H() corresponds to the Discrete-Time Fourier
Transform of the corresponding scaling function (x),
and dened in terms of its coefcients h(n):
H() =

n=
h(n)e
in
. (32)
Using the sampling for the discrete detail description of
a function f in [7],

f(u),
2
j (u 2
j
n)
_
= (f(u) (u))
_
2
j
n
_
,
(33)
or,
D
2
j =
_
(f(u)
2
j (u))
_
2
j
n
__
(34)
which contains the coefcients of the high frequency
details of the function, the spectrum of the discrete detail
signal can be written as [7]
S
d
2
j () = 2
j

k=
S
2
j ( + 2
j
2k). (35)
The energy of the detail function at an specic resolution
j is dened as [7]

2
2
j =
2
j
2
_
2
j

2
j

S
d
2
j ()d. (36)
This equation describes the support of the wavelet in
the frequency domain [8], for an specic resolution j.
Finally, it can be shown that the solution of the integral
leads to an expression that relates the energy content in
two consecutive resolution ltering operations [7]:

2
2
j = 2
2H

2
2
j+1. (37)
From this expression, the Hurst coefcient H can be
derived, using the expression
H =
1
2
log
2
_

2
2
j

2
2
j+1
_
. (38)
B. 2-D Case
Extending the analysis to the two-dimensional case, the
same steps of the previous section are followed. For a
2-D fBm, the power spectral density assumes the form
[9]
S() = S(
x
,
y
)
K
(
2
x
+
2
y
)
2H+2
2
. (39)
For this part of the study, S() is computed as the power
spectral density of a stationary signal, which doesnt
apply strictly to non-stationary processes, as is the case.
However, this approach leads to good results.
S(
x
,
y
) = |FFT(image)|
2
. (40)
If the frequency-domain signal is ltered with a wavelet
lter , the resulting spectrum at the specic resolution is
[7]
S
2
j (

) = S(

3
2
j
_
2
j
(
x
,
y
)
_

2
(41)
where
|(
x
,
y
)|
2
= |(
x
)|
2
|(
y
)|
2
. (42)
The discrete version of this spectrum can be written as
[7]
S
d
2
j (
x
,
y
) = 2
2j

l=

k=
S
2
j
_

x
+ 2
j
2k,
y
+ 2
j
2l
_
.
(43)
Fig. 1. Dyadic frequency allocation for each wavelet lter in a MR
decomposition.
Fig. 2. Fourier Transform of the high frequency 2-D wavelet,

3
(x, y), for Daubechies 6.
The energy of the details function at an specic reso-
lution j can be calculated by integration in the support
of

3
j
() of the chosen wavelet lter [8], as shown in
gure 1. This is described by the equation

2
2
j =
2
2j
4
2
_
2
j

2
j

_
2
j

2
j

S
d
2
j (
x
,
y
)d
x
d
y
. (44)
After an appropriate change of variable it can be said
that the previous equation can be written as [7]

2
2
j = 2
2H

2
2
j+1 (45)
so, also in the case of 2-D signals, the ratio of the
energy corresponding to the detail signals at successive
resolutions, provides a solution for the computation of
H, in the same way than Eq. (38).
H =
1
2
log
2
_

2
2
j

2
2
j+1
_
. (46)
C. Algorithm
POWER SPECTRAL DENSITY ALGORITHM FOR THE
CALCULATION OF HURST COEFFICIENT
SpectralFD(M
0
, N, Wavelet)
M
0
is the M M matrix that corresponds to the
input image (formats .jpg, .tif, .gif) adjusted
to a standardized gray level number.
Wavelet is the analyzing wavelet filter.
N is the desired level of Multi-Resolution
decomposition steps.
1) Compute the 2-D FFT of the image.
2) Compute Power Spectral Density (PSD) of
the image according to Eq. (40).
3) For j = 1 : N {
a) Compute the magnitude of the M M
2-D filter, corresponding to the
separable wavelet

3
(x, y)

according
to Eq. (42).
b) Multiply (frequency domain) the PSD of
the image with the filter, as in Eq.
(41).
c) Sum all the elements of the resulting
matrix.
d) Divide the resulting matrix by 2 2
j
to obtain energy(j).
}
4) Estimate H(the Hurst coefficient)
according to Eq. (45) using the values of
energy(j) for all the values of j.
V. WIGNER-VILLE DESCRIPTION (WVD) METHOD
Previous research has been developed in the modeling
and estimation of fBm parameters[8], [13] and have
demonstrated that WVD is a valid method for the
analysis of this kind of processes. For a 1-D process,
the WVD is given by
W
f
(t, ) =
_

f
_
t +
t
0
2
_
f

_
t
t
0
2
_
exp(jt
0
)d
0
(47)
or in frequency domain
W
F
(t, ) =
_

F
_
+

0
2
_
F

_


0
2
_
exp(j
0
t)dt
0
(48)
with F() corresponding to the Fourier Transform of
f(t) and W
f
(t, ) = W
F
(t, ). The properties of this
distribution can be found among others in [14].
The extension to 2-D [15] is described with the equation
W
f
(x, y, u, v) =
_
R
2
f
_
x +

2
, y +

2
_
f

_
x

2
, y

2
_
exp(2j(u +v)) dd
(49)
whose discrete time-frequency version can be
dened[16], for an image of size N
X
N
Y
, as
W(n
1
, n
2
, m
1
, m
2
) =
1
4 N
X
N
Y

N
X
1
l
1
=0

N
Y
1
l
2
=0
f(l
1
, l
2
)f

(n
1
l
1
, n
2
l
2
)
exp
_
j
_
m
1
N
X
(2l
1
n
1
) +
m
2
N
Y
(2l
2
n
2
)
__
.
(50)
Let f be the original image sample both in time (space)
and frequency domains. The WVD for this signal is
dened as
W
f
(x, y, u, v) =
1
XY

n1,n2,m1,m2
W(n
1
, n
2
, m
1
, m
2
)

_
x n
1
X
2
_

_
y n
2
Y
2
_

_
u
m1
2NxX
_

_
v
m2
2NyY
_
.
(51)
Once the WVD of the fBm process has been completed,
the local power spectrum can be computed simply as
P
B
H
(t, ) = |W
B
H
(t, )| (52)
VI. RESULTS
Two algorithms were implemented to synthesize 2-D
fractional Brownian motion[4]. The rst is based on
the midpoint displacement algorithm and the other one
is based in the spectral properties of the fractional
Brownian Motion. The measurements derived from the
images generated with power spectrum method were
closer to the theoretical values used to generate each
fBm. For the variance method, the result of averaging
a specied number of measurements for 20 uniformly
distributed values of H, between 0 and 1, is summarized
in gures 3 and 4.
Fig. 3. Estimation of Fractal Dimension from a set of synthesized
images for 20 values of H between 0 and 1. The images were
obtained using the Spectral Synthesis approach. The difference of each
estimation regarding the theoretical estimation line is shown in the
second graph.
Fig. 4. Estimation of Fractal Dimension from a set of synthesized
images for 20 values of H between 0 and 1. The images were
synthesized using the Midpoint approach. The difference of each
estimation regarding the theoretical estimation line is shown in the
second graph.
In Fig. 4, there is an average difference of 0.24 for the
theoretical and estimated values of fractal dimension.
However, the estimated fractal dimension has a linear
behavior that can be used to compute the actual value.
This is a topic for future research.
On the other hand, the Spectral Method of estimation
of Fractal Dimension gave far more consistent results,
close to the theoretical values and coherent in all the
detail scales. The next gures describe respectively the
worst and best cases for this approach. The lines, from
lower to upper, describe the ratio of energy content (see
Eq. 46) between resolutions 1 - 2, 2 - 3, 3 - 4, and 4
- 5. Daubechies 2 showed a relatively poor result, but
the rest of the Daubechies family and the other families
of wavelets, had a consistent behavior similar to the one
shown in Fig. 6.
Fig. 5. Spectral estimation of Fractal Dimension using Daubechies 2
wavelet.
Fig. 6. Spectral estimation of Fractal Dimension using a biorthogonal
wavelet.
The algorithm is applied to a brain CT (see Fig. 7),
and the objective is to estimate the fractal dimension
in different areas of the image, delimited by a grid. For
this study, 16 and 32 pixel grids were used to analyze
the tomographic images (CTs and MRIs).
Fig. 7. Source image for which the local fractal dimension was
estimated .
A. Variance Method
Although the localization of certain areas of the image
associated to tumor tissue is consistent, the results for
this method depend heavily on the analyzing wavelet.
Another drawback of this method is seen in the relation-
ship between observations of different grain. Theres not
a direct correspondence between different grid sizes, as
can be seen in Figs. 8 and 9. This method is efcient
in terms time of execution, as it performs a wavelet
decomposition and the computation of the variance of
the detail coefcients.
Fig. 8. Estimation of Fractal Dimension, using Variance Method, the
wavelet Daubechies 5, and a grid of 32 pixels.
Fig. 9. Estimation of Fractal Dimension, using Variance Method, the
wavelet Daubechies 5, and a grid of 16 pixels.
It is possible to locate some features comparing different
grids as in gures 8 and 9. In the 32 pixel grid, for
instance, the positions (3, 4)and (4, 3) appear as a high
values of Fractal Dimension, almost with every wavelet
family. The same happens with positions (6, 3), or (7, 5).
When a ner grid is considered, it is possible to see
some details corresponding to some of the previously
mentioned example areas.
B. Spectral Method
Contrary to Variance Method, the spectral method shows
far more independence from the selected analyzing
wavelet, in the sense that almost the same features are
identied and located, no matter which wavelet is used
to perform the ltering, both for 16 and 32 pixel grids.
It was also observed that the computation times are
considerably higher for this algorithm, compared to the
Variance Method.
Fig. 10. FFT Power Spectrum estimation of local Fractal Dimension
values, using the wavelet Daubechies 5, and a grid of 32 pixels.
Fig. 11. FFT Power Spectrum estimation of local Fractal Dimension
values, using the wavelet Daubechies 5, and a grid of 16 pixels.
In this experiment, the position (4, 3) presented the
highest fractal dimension. This can be clearly seen in
positions (7, 8)and (8, 5). The same situation is seen in
(7, 5) for a 32 pixel grid, and the corresponding low
values in (13, 10) and (13, 11) for a 16 pixel grid.
C. Wigner-Ville Description Method
The graphical results for the 32-pixel grid are very
similar to the ones obtained in the previous methods.
Fig. 12. WVD Method estimation of local Fractal Dimension values,
using the wavelet Daubechies 5, and a grid of 32 pixels.
Fig. 13. FFT Power Spectrum WVD Method estimation of local
Fractal Dimension values, using the wavelet Daubechies 5, and a grid
of 16 pixels.
The results show clearly that for 32-pixel grid, the area
in the position (4, 3) shows a high fractal dimension.
Regarding the 16-pixel grid analysis, low H areas such
as (13, 10)are clearly visible using the three algorithms.
Numeric values obtained from the three algorithms,
specically for the 32-bit grid position (3, 4). These
results are summarized in the following table.
The values obtained from the variance method are in
general terms above the expected values, in an average
TABLE I
COMPARISON OF THE FD VALUES FROM THE THREE METHODS.
POSITION (4,3) IN THE 32-BIT GRID
General daubechies biorthogonal coifet
variance 3.08 3.09 3.13 3.03
fft spectrum 2.52 2.53 2.49 2.54
wvd 2.50 2.57 2.42 2.55
of 0.4. On the other hand, FFT method values tend to
be below this value. WVD are closer to the expected
results. However, all three approaches show coherence
and can be used to derive FD values after some simple
processing and particularly show relative differences that
can be exploited for the spotting of different FD tissues.
VII. CONCLUSION
Three mathematical procedures to compute the Hurst
coefcient of fractional Brownian motions have been
presented, both for one and two-dimension cases. From
the experimental results of this study, it can be concluded
that lesions can be associated to localized high or low
values of the fractal dimension. It can be noted that
different anomalies in brain images are perceived as
drastic differences of the fractal dimension in adjacent
areas of a given grid. On the other hand, the frequency-
domain processing of tomographic images provides a
more consistent framework for the multiresolution anal-
ysis, although the time required for this computation is
greater than in the statistical processing of the image.
VIII. FUTURE WORK
From the results obtained in this study, we are inter-
ested in developing classication algorithms based on
the three techniques shown in this paper, as well as
a comparison of these in terms of computational ef-
ciency and accuracy, and the validation of results using
sets of tomographic images corresponding to different
brain pathologies. Future work also includes also the
development of a more general fBm model known as
multifractional Brownian motion (mBm) in which the
Hurst coefcient H is modeled as a function of time
or position H(t) as a fundamental part of a more
detailed tissue recognition algorithm, based probably in
Neural Networks techniques. The implementation of fast
algorithms for FFT spectrum and WVD estimations are
also part of this research work.
IX. ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors wish to thank the Whitaker Foundation
for partially supporting this work through a Biomedical
Engineering Research Grant (RG-01-0125).
APPENDIX
Let (V
2
j )
jZ
be a separable multiresolution approxima-
tion of L
2
(R). Let (x, y) = (x)(y) be the associ-
ated two-dimensional scaling function. Let (x) be the
associated one-dimensional wavelet associated with the
scaling function (x). Then the three wavelets

1
(x, y) = (x)(y) (53)

2
(x, y) = (x)(y)

3
(x, y) = (x)(y)
are such that
_
2
j

1
2
j
_
x 2
j
n, y 2
j
m
_
,
2
j

2
2
j
_
x 2
j
n, y 2
j
m
_
,
2
j

3
2
j
_
x 2
j
n, y 2
j
m
__
(n,m)Z
2
(54)
is an orthonormal basis O
2
j and
_
2
j

1
2
j
_
x 2
j
n, y 2
j
m
_
,
2
j

2
2
j
_
x 2
j
n, y 2
j
m
_
,
2
j

3
2
j
_
x 2
j
n, y 2
j
m
__
(n,m,j)Z
3
(55)
is an orthonormal basis of L
2
(R
2
).
Considering the expected value of the square of the
wavelet transform (which is equal to its variance since
the expected value of the transform itself is zero), we
obtain:
E
_

CWT
B

(a,

b )

2
_
=
1
a
2
_

u
_

b
a
_

_

b
a
_
E [B(

u )B(

v )] d

u d

v
(56)
Using the expression (3) in conjunction with (18) leads
to
E
_

CWT
B

(a,

b )

2
_
=
C
2
a
2
_

u
_

b
a
_

_

b
a
_
|

v | d

u d

v
(57)
The substitutions lead to
E
_

CWT
B

(a,

b )

2
_
=
C
2
a
2H+2
_

p
_

p +

q ) (

q ) |

p |
2H
d

p d

q
(58)
which can be conveniently rewritten as
E
_

CWT
B

(a,

b )

2
_
=
C
2
a
2H+2
_

p
CWT

(1,

p ) |

p |
2H
d

p
(59)
where CWT

represents the wavelet transform of the

wavelet itself. Since the integrand in (58) is independent
of a, the variance of

CWT
B

(a,

b )

varies as a power
law in a, and can be used to estimate the self-similarity
parameter of the process. This approach therefore pro-
vides an alternative to the power spectral density for
estimating H.
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