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Sampling and Quantization

Image sampling and quantization are essential processes in converting real-world images into digital format, affecting quality, clarity, and file size. Sampling involves selecting a finite number of pixels to represent an image, directly influencing spatial resolution, while quantization maps intensity values to a limited set of levels, impacting color representation. Together, they determine the fidelity of digital images, with poor sampling or quantization leading to issues like aliasing and quantization error.

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5 views3 pages

Sampling and Quantization

Image sampling and quantization are essential processes in converting real-world images into digital format, affecting quality, clarity, and file size. Sampling involves selecting a finite number of pixels to represent an image, directly influencing spatial resolution, while quantization maps intensity values to a limited set of levels, impacting color representation. Together, they determine the fidelity of digital images, with poor sampling or quantization leading to issues like aliasing and quantization error.

Uploaded by

thechannachara
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Sampling and Quantization

Image sampling and image quantization are two fundamental steps in converting real-world images
into digital form. Sampling determines how many pixels are used to represent an image, while
quantization decides how many intensity levels or colours each pixel can store. Together, they control
the quality, clarity and file size of digital images.

Image Sampling
Image sampling is the process of converting a continuous image into a discrete form by selecting a
finite number of points (pixels) from the image plane. It deals with spatial resolution i.e how many
pixels are used to represent the image in horizontal and vertical directions. In simple terms, sampling
determines where pixel values are taken from the image.

• Converts continuous spatial coordinates into a discrete grid.

• Directly controls image resolution (e.g., 256×256, 512×512).

• Higher sampling rate means more pixels which means more detail.

• Lower sampling rate means fewer pixels leading to loss of spatial detail.

• Poor sampling can cause aliasing effects.

Working

• The continuous image is overlaid with a rectangular grid.

• Each grid intersection corresponds to a pixel location.

• The image intensity is measured at each grid point.

• The spacing between grid points defines the sampling rate.

• The sampled values form a 2D array of pixels.


Image Quantization
Image quantization is the process of mapping a large set of continuous or discrete intensity values to
a smaller, finite set of intensity levels. It deals with intensity resolution i.e how many grey levels or
colors are used to represent pixel values. In simple terms, quantization determines how accurately
pixel values are represented.

• Converts continuous intensity values into discrete levels.

• Controls the number of grey levels or colors.

• More levels means smoother intensity transitions.

• Fewer levels means visible banding and distortion.

• Quantization introduces quantization error.

Working

• Pixel intensity values are first sampled.


• A finite set of intensity levels is defined (e.g., 8-bit → 256 levels).

• Each pixel value is rounded to the nearest allowed level.

• The difference between original and assigned value is the quantization error.

• The result is a digitally representable image.

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