A method for recognizing an object in an image is disclosed wherein a fractal map of the image is generated by estimating the fractal dimension of each pixel in the image. The fractal map is segmented by thresholding and locations of candidate objects are determined. The pixel value of the image pixel corresponding to the same location where the candidate object is found in the fractal map is compared to a threshold value. If the pixel value is greater than the threshold value, the candidate object is recognized as a valid object.