I have invented a bold and revolutionary method in order to compress any picture to only a few bytes (typically more or less one hundred).
Here is how it works in a few words :
It separates the three layers of a picture (RGB, but only stores one specific bit if they are similar).
For each layer, it defines the average brightness.
It divides a picture into a grid, where each cell is either "more light" or "more dark" than the parent average brightness (each is coded in one bit).
![](expl01.png)
Then it makes two average pictures out of the "light" and "dark" areas, and repeat the operation on them.
![](expl02.png)
It stops doing this when the picture is smaller than one pixel or the color is solid.
The source code for this is there
This is of course a lossy method, here are a few examples of original and compressed pictures (typically to about 128 bytes in my own .bpc format, converted back to .png here) :
A picture of Abraham Lincoln :
![](photo01.jpgB.png)
A baloon :
![](photo02.jpgB.png)
A camera :
![](photo03.jpgB.png)
A wooden house :
![](photo10.jpgB.png)
A flower :
![](photo14.jpgB.png)
Some album cover :
![](photo19.jpgB.png)
A typical landscape :
![](photo20.jpgB.png)
And here is an example of .bpc file. It could probably fit in one tweet.
I didn't know about it back then but it might have something to do with the concept of self-affinity.