The size of objects in natural and artificial images

This paper is partly written as a review, in which we discuss old and new image analysis and synthesis methods. We also introduce a new method for analyzing scaling phenomena in natural images and draw some consequences as to whether natural images belong to the space of functions with bounded variation. In some sense, our analysis computes the size distribution of objects in an image. By using the dead leaves model, we study the influence of occlusion on size distribution, and prove compatibility with our experimental results. © 1999 Academic Press.