Digital Image Processing Basics

Digital image processing focuses on improving pictorial information for human interpretation and processing image data for machine perception. A brief history of digital image processing was provided, from early applications in the newspaper industry in the 1920s to current uses. Key examples mentioned include using image processing to improve images from space missions in the 1960s, medical applications like CAT scans in the 1970s, and current uses in areas like image enhancement, artistic effects, medical visualization, industrial inspection, law enforcement, and human-computer interfaces.

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Digital Image Processing Basics

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Kavya Mistry

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Digital Image Processing:

Introduction
Introduction

“One picture is worth more than ten thousand

words”
Anonymous
References
“Digital Image Processing”, Rafael C.
Gonzalez & Richard E. Woods,
Addison-Wesley, 2002
– Much of the material that follows is taken from this
book
“Machine Vision: Automated Visual
Inspection and Robot Vision”, David
Vernon, Prentice Hall, 1991
– Available online at:
homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk/rbf/BOOKS/VERNON/
Contents
This lecture will cover:
– What is a digital image?
– What is digital image processing?
– History of digital image processing
– State of the art examples of digital image
processing
– Key stages in digital image processing
What is a Digital Image?
A digital image is a representation of a two-
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

dimensional image as a finite set of digital

values, called picture elements or pixels
What is a Digital Image? (cont…)
Pixel values typically represent gray levels,
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

colours, heights.
Remember digitization implies that a digital
image is an approximation of a real scene
1 pixel
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”,)

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

images
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
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 Mid Level Process High Level Process
Input: Image Input: Image Input: Attributes
Output: Image Output: Attributes Output: Understanding
Examples: Noise Examples: Object Examples: Scene
removal, image recognition, understanding,
sharpening segmentation autonomous navigation
History of Digital Image Processing
Early 1920s: One of the first applications of
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

digital imaging was in the news-

paper 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
History of DIP (cont…)
Mid to late 1920s: Improvements to the
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

Bartlane system resulted in higher quality

images
– New reproduction
processes based
on photographic
techniques
– Increased number
of tones in Improved
reproduced images digital image Early 15 tone digital
image
History of DIP (cont…)
1960s: Improvements in computing technology
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

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 A picture of the moon taken
by the Ranger 7 probe
minutes before landing
History of DIP (cont…)
1970s: Digital image processing begins to be
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

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
Typical head slice CAT
Tomography (CAT) scans image
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
Examples: Image Enhancement
One of the most common uses of DIP
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

techniques: improve quality, remove noise etc

Examples: The Hubble Telescope
Launched in 1990 the Hubble
telescope can take images of
very distant objects
However, an incorrect mirror
made many of Hubble’s
images useless
Image processing
techniques were
used to fix this
Examples: Artistic Effects
Artistic effects are
used to make images
more visually
appealing, to add
special effects and to
make composite
images
Examples: Medicine
Take slice from MRI scan of canine heart, and
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

find boundaries between types of tissue

– Image with gray levels representing tissue density
– Use a suitable filter to highlight edges

Original MRI Image of a Dog Heart Edge Detection Image

Examples: GIS
Geographic Information Systems
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

– Digital image processing techniques are used

extensively to manipulate satellite imagery
– Terrain classification
– Meteorology
Examples: GIS (cont…)
Night-Time Lights of the
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

World data set

– Global inventory of
human settlement
– Not hard to imagine
the kind of analysis
that might be done
using this data
Examples: Industrial Inspection
Human operators are
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

expensive, slow and

unreliable
Make machines do the
job instead
Industrial vision systems
are used in all kinds of
industries
Can we trust them?
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
Examples: Law Enforcement
Image processing
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

techniques are used

extensively by law
enforcers
– Number plate
recognition for speed
cameras/automated toll
systems
– Fingerprint recognition
– Enhancement of CCTV
images
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 Morphological
Restoration Processing

Image
Segmentation
Enhancement