The optical wavelet transform (OWT) of fractal images simply reveals the co
nstruction rules of self-similarity of fractals from the domain of differen
t time. According to the correlation between wavelet transform (WT) and Fou
rier transform (FT), the WT can be performed optically and used to analyze
fractals through optical images collected by computer. The experiments also
prove that the OWT provides a fast and effective method to get accurate fr
actal dimensions. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.