Digital Image Processing: Introduction

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What is a Digital Image?

A digital image is a representation of a twodimensional image as a finite set of digital values, called picture elements or pixels

Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

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What is a Digital Image? (cont)

Pixel values typically represent gray levels, colours, heights, opacities etc Remember digitization implies that a digital image is an approximation of a real scene
1 pixel

Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

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What is a Digital Image? (cont)

Common image formats include:
1 sample per point (B&W or Grayscale) 3 samples per point (Red, Green, and Blue) 4 samples per point (Red, Green, Blue, and Alpha, a.k.a. Opacity)

For most of this course we will focus on grey-scale images

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What is Digital Image Processing?

Digital image processing focuses on two major tasks
Improvement of pictorial information for human interpretation Processing of image data for storage, transmission and representation for autonomous machine perception

Some argument about where image processing ends and fields such as image analysis and computer vision start

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What is DIP? (cont)

The continuum from image processing to computer vision can be broken up into low-, mid- and high-level processes
Low Level Process Input: Image Output: Image Examples: Noise removal, image sharpening Mid Level Process Input: Image Output: Attributes Examples: Object recognition, segmentation High Level Process Input: Attributes Output: Understanding Examples: Scene understanding, autonomous navigation

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History of Digital Image Processing

Early 1920s: One of the first applications of digital imaging was in the newspaper industry
The Bartlane cable picture transmission service Early digital image Images were transferred by submarine cable between London and New York Pictures were coded for cable transfer and reconstructed at the receiving end on a telegraph printer

Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

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History of DIP (cont)

Mid to late 1920s: Improvements to the Bartlane system resulted in higher quality images
New reproduction processes based on photographic techniques Increased number of tones in reproduced images

Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

Improved digital image

Early 15 tone digital image

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History of DIP (cont)

1960s: Improvements in computing technology and the onset of the space race led to a surge of work in digital image processing
1964: Computers used to improve the quality of images of the moon taken by the Ranger 7 probe Such techniques were used in other space missions including the Apollo landings

Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

A picture of the moon taken by the Ranger 7 probe minutes before landing

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History of DIP (cont)

1970s: Digital image processing begins to be used in medical applications
1979: Sir Godfrey N. Hounsfield & Prof. Allan M. Cormack share the Nobel Prize in medicine for the invention of tomography, the technology behind Computerised Axial Tomography (CAT) scans

Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

Typical head slice CAT image

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History of DIP (cont)

1980s - Today: The use of digital image processing techniques has exploded and they are now used for all kinds of tasks in all kinds of areas
Image enhancement/restoration Artistic effects Medical visualisation Industrial inspection Law enforcement Human computer interfaces

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Examples: Image Enhancement

One of the most common uses of DIP techniques: improve quality, remove noise etc

Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

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Examples: Artistic Effects

Artistic effects are used to make images more visually appealing, to add special effects and to make composite images

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Examples: Medicine
Take slice from MRI scan of canine heart, and find boundaries between types of tissue
Image with gray levels representing tissue density Use a suitable filter to highlight edges

Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

Original MRI Image of a Dog Heart

Edge Detection Image

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Examples: GIS
Geographic Information Systems
Digital image processing techniques are used extensively to manipulate satellite imagery Terrain classification Meteorology

Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

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Examples: GIS (cont)

Night-Time Lights of the World data set
Global inventory of human settlement Not hard to imagine the kind of analysis that might be done using this data

Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

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Examples: Industrial Inspection

Human operators are expensive, slow and unreliable Make machines do the job instead Industrial vision systems are used in all kinds of industries Can we trust them?

Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

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Examples: PCB Inspection

Printed Circuit Board (PCB) inspection
Machine inspection is used to determine that all components are present and that all solder joints are acceptable Both conventional imaging and x-ray imaging are used

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Examples: Law Enforcement

Image processing techniques are used extensively by law enforcers
Number plate recognition for speed cameras/automated toll systems Fingerprint recognition Enhancement of CCTV images

Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

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Examples: HCI

Try to make human computer interfaces more natural

Face recognition Gesture recognition

Does anyone remember the user interface from Minority Report? These tasks can be extremely difficult

Key Stages in Digital Image Processing

Image Restoration Morphological Processing

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Image Enhancement

Segmentation

Image Acquisition

Object Recognition

Problem Domain Colour Image Processing Image Compression

Representation & Description

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Key Stages in Digital Image Processing: Image Aquisition

Image Restoration Morphological Processing

Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

Image Enhancement

Segmentation

Image Acquisition

Object Recognition

Problem Domain Colour Image Processing Image Compression

Representation & Description

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Key Stages in Digital Image Processing: Image Enhancement

Image Restoration Morphological Processing

Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

Image Enhancement

Segmentation

Image Acquisition

Object Recognition

Problem Domain Colour Image Processing Image Compression

Representation & Description

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Key Stages in Digital Image Processing: Image Restoration

Image Restoration Morphological Processing

Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

Image Enhancement

Segmentation

Image Acquisition

Object Recognition

Problem Domain Colour Image Processing Image Compression

Representation & Description

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Key Stages in Digital Image Processing: Morphological Processing

Image Restoration Morphological Processing

Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

Image Enhancement

Segmentation

Image Acquisition

Object Recognition

Problem Domain Colour Image Processing Image Compression

Representation & Description

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Key Stages in Digital Image Processing: Segmentation

Image Restoration Morphological Processing

Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

Image Enhancement

Segmentation

Image Acquisition

Object Recognition

Problem Domain Colour Image Processing Image Compression

Representation & Description

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Key Stages in Digital Image Processing: Object Recognition

Image Restoration Morphological Processing

Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

Image Enhancement

Segmentation

Image Acquisition

Object Recognition

Problem Domain Colour Image Processing Image Compression

Representation & Description

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Key Stages in Digital Image Processing: Representation & Description

Image Restoration Morphological Processing

Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

Image Enhancement

Segmentation

Image Acquisition

Object Recognition

Problem Domain Colour Image Processing Image Compression

Representation & Description

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Key Stages in Digital Image Processing: Image Compression

Image Restoration Morphological Processing

Image Enhancement

Segmentation

Image Acquisition

Object Recognition

Problem Domain Colour Image Processing Image Compression

Representation & Description

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Key Stages in Digital Image Processing: Colour Image Processing

Image Restoration Morphological Processing

Image Enhancement

Segmentation

Image Acquisition

Object Recognition

Problem Domain Colour Image Processing Image Compression

Representation & Description

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Image Sensing and Acquisition

Single sensor Line scan Array sensor Other (MRI, Ultrasound)

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Chapter 2: Digital Image Fundamentals

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Chapter 2: Digital Image Fundamentals of

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Sampling and Quantization

Sampling
Digitizing the coordinate values is called sampling.

Quantization
Digitization of the light intensity at each pixel location is called quantization.

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Image Sampling and Quantization

Actual image is continuous Digital image has a finite number of pixels and levels

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2: Digital Image Fundamentals

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Sampling
The light intensities are sampled at equally spaced intervals. A larger sampling rate will create a larger number of pixel data and thus a better resolution.

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Quantization
Digitizing the amplitude values.

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How to form a grayscale image

Gray level 19 6

4 3 Sample column Pixel Digital image

Sample row alternation

Pixel
Black

Gray

Sample row Picture

128

Sample column alternation

White

255

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Value array of grayscale image

Value array of grayscale image

125,153,158,157,127,70,103,120,129,144,144,150,150,147,150,160,165,160,164,165,167,175,175,166,133, 133,154,158,100,116,120, 97, 74, 54,74,118,146,148,150,145,157,164,157,158,162,165,171,155,115, 88, 155,163, 95,112,123,101,137,108, 81, 71, 63, 81,137,142,146,152,159,161,159,154,138, 81, 78, 84,114, 167, 69, 85, 59, 65, 43, 85, 34, 69, 78,104,101,117,132,134,149,160,165,158,143,114, 99, 57, 45, 51, 57,

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How to form a color image I

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How to form a color image II

R Quantization Analog image

Scanning

Sampling

G Quantization

Digital image

B Quantization

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How to form a color image III

Value array of (RG B) color image

(207,137,130) (220,179,163) (215,169,161) (210,179,172) (210,179,172) (207,154,146) (217,124,121) (226,144,133) (226,144,133) (224,137,124) (227,151,136) (227,151,136) (226,159,142) (227,151,136) (230,170,154) (231,178,163) (231,178,163) (231,178,163) (236,187,171) (236,187,171) (239,195,176) (239,195,176) (240,205,187) (239,195,176) (231,138,123) (217,124,121) (215,169,161) (216,179,170) (216,179,170) (207,137,120) (159, 51, 71) (189, 89,101) (216,111,110) (217,124,121) (227,151,136) (227,151,136) (226,159,142) (226,159,142) (237,159,135) (237,159,135) (231,178,163) (236,187,171) (231,178,163) (236,187,171) (236,187,171) (236,187,171) (239,195,176) (239,195,176) (236,187,171) (227,133,118) (213,142,135) (216,179,170) (221,184,170) (190, 89, 89) (204,109,113)