Digital Image Processing

CGB 417
Chapter 1: Lecture 01
Principles of Digital Imagery

Prof. Ouma
UB
GEOMATICS

UB Geomatics
2
Course Content
1. Principles of Digital Imagery & Processing
2. Image Pre-processing
3. Image Enhancement
4. Information Extraction
5. Image Processing System Considerations

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3 Chapter Content
1. What is a digital image?
2. What is digital image processing?
3. History of digital image processing
4. Sources of Digital Data
5. Data formats
6. State of the art examples of digital image processing
7. Key stages in digital image processing

Important:
Acquire some experience with ERDAS Imagine/
MATLAB.
Digital Image Processing: CGB 417
4 References & Bibliography

▪R. Gonzalez, R. Woods. Digital Ιmage Processing,

Prentice Hall, 2008.

▪J. R. Jensen. Introductory Digital Image Processing – A

Remote Sensing Perspective. Prentice Hall.

▪A. Jain. Fundamentals of Digital Image Processing,

Prentice Hall, 1988.

▪J. Lim, Two Dimensional Signal and Image Processing,

Prentice Hall, 1989.

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 5

Motivation:
Applications of Digital Image

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Examples of Digital Imagery (Raster Data)

UB Geomatics
7 Digital Data & Applications

Land Surveying

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8 Digital Data & Applications

Civil Engineering

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9 Digital Data & Applications
Agriculture

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10 Digital Data & Applications
Environmental Studies

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11 Digital Data & Applications
Humanitarian Efforts: Imaging and Comm.

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12 Digital Data & Applications
Remote Sensing for Property
Real Estate Valuation: A Data Source Comparison
in Support of Fair Land Taxation in
Rwanda
- Property Valuation:
- Location-Area-Perimeter
- Land Taxation

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13 Digital Data & Applications
Real Estate
- Property Valuation:
- Location-Area-Perimeter-Condition

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14 Digital Data & Applications
Real Estate
- Property Valuation:
- Location-Area-Perimeter-Condition

Remote
Sensing

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15 Digital Data & Applications
Real Estate
- Property Valuation:
- Location-Area-Perimeter-Condition

Remote
Sensing and
GPS
measurements

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16 Digital Data & Applications
Real Estate

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17

1. Introduction:
Definition and Representation of Digital Image

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 18 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

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 19 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

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

20

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What is a Digital Image?
 21 What is a Digital Image? (cont…)
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

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 22 What is a Digital Image? (cont…)
▪ Pixel values typically represent gray levels,
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

colours, heights, opacities etc.

▪ Note: digitization implies that a digital image is

an approximation of a real scene

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

23

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What is a Digital Image?
 24 What is a Digital Image?
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

= f(x, y)

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Digital Image = Raster Data

= 23 = DN

= 80

UB Geomatics
 Characteristics of Digital Image

Colour image formed

by combining three (3)
BW image different BW images

image pixel pixel intensity

(digital number (DN))
Pixel DN varies from 0 - 255
UB Geomatics
27 Digital – Digital Numbers (DN)

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28

2.0 Digital Image Processing

Concepts

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29 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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30 What is Digital Image Processing?

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31 What is Digital Image Processing?

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32 What is Digital Image Processing?

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33 What is Digital Image Processing?

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34 What is Digital Image Processing?

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35 What is Digital Image Processing?

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36 What is Digital Image Processing?

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37 What is Digital Image Processing?

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38 What is Digital Image Processing?

▪ Is the process of enhancing an image or

extracting information or features from an image
▪ Computerized routines for information extraction
(eg, classification, pattern recognition) from
remotely sensed images to obtain categories of
information about specific features.
▪ Many more….

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39 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

In this course we will

stop here
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40

3.0 History of DIP

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 41 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

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 42 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
digital image Early 15 tone digital
reproduced images image

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 43 History of DIP (cont…)
1960s: Improvements in computing
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

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

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 Typical head slice CAT
Tomography (CAT) scans image

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45 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:
– Surveying and Photogrammetry
– Medical visualisation
– Industrial inspection
– Law enforcement
– Human computer interfaces
– ..

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46

4.0 Types of Digital Images

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47 Types of Digital Images
1. Binary Images

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48 Types of Digital Images

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49 Types of Digital Images
1. Binary Images

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50 Types of Digital Images
1. Binary Images

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 51 Types of Digital Images
1. Binary Images
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

Binary images: (a) Object outline. (b) Page of text used in OCR application
(Optical character recognition)

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52 Types of Digital Images
2. Gray-scale Images

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53 Types of Digital Images
2. Gray-scale Images

00 black
01 dark gray
10 light gray
11 white

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54 Types of Digital Images
2. Gray-scale Images

Examples of gray-scale images

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55 Types of Digital Images
2. Gray-scale Images

Examples of gray-scale images

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56 Types of Digital Images
2. Gray-scale Images

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57 Gray-scale image quantization
• 256 gray levels (8bits/pixel) 32 gray levels (5 bits/pixel) 16 gray levels (4 bits/pixel)

• 8 gray levels (3 bits/pixel) 4 gray levels (2 bits/pixel) 2 gray levels (1 bit/pixel)

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58 Digital Image File Formats

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59 Types of Digital Images

Gray-scale Images

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60 Types of Digital Images
3. Colour Images

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61 Types of Digital Images
3. Colour Images

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62 Types of Digital Images
3. Colour Images

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63 Types of Digital Images
3. Colour Images

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64
Color Images
• Color images are comprised of three color
channels – red, green, and, blue – which
combine to create most of the colors we can
see.

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65 Color Coordinate System

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66 Types of Digital Images
4. Multispectral Images

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67 Types of Digital Images

Gray-scale Images

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Remote sensing Raster (Matrix) Data Format
▪ Digital number of column 5, row 4 at band 2 is expressed
as BV5,4,2 = 105.

UB Geomatics
UB Geomatics
70

Colour Composite

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 Characteristics of Digital Image

vegetation vegetation vegetation

© Dr. Ouma
UB Geomatics
72

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 5. Hyperspectral images
Spectral data types

• The hyperspectral image data

usually consists of over a
hundred contiguous spectral
bands, forming a three-
dimensional (two spatial
dimensions and one spectral
dimension) image cube.
• Each pixel is associated with a
complete spectrum of the imaged
area.
• The high spectral resolution of
hyperspectral images enables
better identification of the land-
covers

© Dr. Ouma
UB Geomatics
 5. Hyperspectral images
Spectral data types

© Dr. Ouma
UB Geomatics
 5. Hyperspectral images
Spectral data types
Hyperspectral (hundreds of bands) - e.g. NASA's Hyperion sensor on-
board the EO1 satellite, CHRIS sensor onboard ESA's PRABO satellite)

An illustration of a
hyperspectral
image cube

The hyperspectral image data usually consists of over a hundred contiguous

spectral bands, forming a three-dimensional (two spatial dimensions and one
spectral dimension) image cube. Each pixel is associated with a complete
spectrum of the imaged area. The high spectral resolution of hyperspectral images
© Dr. Ouma
enables better identification
UB Geomatics of the land-covers
76

5.0 Sources of digital imagery for

Remote Sensing

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77 Sources of Data

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78 Sources of Data
• Maps and Drawings • GIS Data Bases
– digitizing, or – conversion between proprietary
standards (ARC/INFO, Intergraph,
– scanning than raster to vector
AutoCAD, etc.)
conversion
– Spatial Data Transfer Standard
• Aerial Photographs: Aircraft, UAV
• Attribute Databases
– photogrammetry/photo interpretation to
extract features – geocoding if micro data
– digitizing or scanning to convert to digital – conversion between geographic units
(e.g. zip codes and census tracts)
– rectification and DTM (digital terrain
model) to create digital orthophotos – conversion between different
databases
• Satellite Imagery
• Records and Documents
– imagery for 2D thematic mapping
– OCR (optical character recognition)
– rectification and DTM to create digital
scanning
orthophotos
– keyboarding
• CAD Data Bases
– then, same as attribute data bases
– translator software (pre-existing or
custom-written) needed to convert to
required GIS format

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79 Sources of Data

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80 Sources of Data Image Data

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81 Sources of Digital Images

The principal source for the images is the electromagnetic

(EM) energy spectrum.

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82

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83

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84 Fields that use DIP

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85

Gamma-Ray Imaging

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86

Gamma rays: Astronomy and Medicine

Gamma-Ray imaging of
A starburst galaxy about
12 million light-years away

Gamma-Ray
Imaging
Cherenkov
Telescope

Gamma-Ray Imaging
İn nuclear medicine
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87

X-Ray Imaging: Medicine and Industry

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88

X- rays

X-ray images from the space

The Chandra X-Ray Observatory

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89

Imaging in the Ultra-violet band

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90 Ultra-violet

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91

Radio Waves: MRI and Astronomy

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92

Radio Waves
Applications include medical imaging:
- Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
- Astronomy.

MRI image slices from the brain

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93
Radio Waves

An example showing Imaging in all of the bands

Astronomy:
STAR Visible light

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94

Visible (RGB) light

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 Visible & Infrared (IR)
95

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96

Visible & Infrared

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97

Infrared (IR)

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 Infrared (IR)
98

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99

Microwaves

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100

Microwaves

Synthetic Aperture Radar

System

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101 Other imaging modalities

The use of ultrasound to

produce real-time images of
the internal structure of a
metallic or biological object
that is opaque to light. Also
known as sonography;
ultrasonic imaging;
ultrasonography

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102
Ultrasound Imaging
File:Ultrasound range [Link]

Ultrasonic spectrum

Ultrasonic Baby image Ultrasound image

during pragnancy acquisition device

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103

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104

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105

6. Digital Image File Formats for

Data Storage

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106 Image formats

nColumns
(0,0)

(r,c)

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107
Multiband data structure
(multispectral)

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108 Digital Image File Formats

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109 Digital Image File Formats

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110 Types of Digital Images

Three (3)
gray-scale
Images
=
Multispectral

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 111

Three main ways to

arrange digital image data:
1. Band sequential
(BSQ)
2. Band interleaved by
line (BIL)
3. Band interleaved by
pixel (BIP)

From [Link]

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112 Digital Image File Formats
1. BSQ (Band Sequential Format):
• Each line of the data followed immediately by
the next line in the same spectral band.

• This format is optimal for spatial (X, Y)

access of any part of a single spectral band.

• Good for multispectral images

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113 Digital Image File Formats

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114 Digital Image File Formats: BSQ

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115 Digital Image File Formats: BSQ

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116 Digital Image File Formats
2. BIL (Band Interleaved by Line Format)
• the first line of the first band followed by the first line
of the second band, followed by the first line of the
third band, interleaved up to the number of bands.
• Subsequent lines for each band are interleaved in
similar fashion.
• This format provides a compromise in performance
between spatial and spectral processing and is the
recommended file format for most ENVI processing
tasks.

• Good for images with 20-60 bands

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117

From [Link]

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118 Digital Image File Formats: BIL

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119 Digital Image File Formats: BIL

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120 Digital Image File Formats
3. BIP (Band Interleaved by Pixel Format)
• the first pixel for all bands in sequential order,
followed by the second pixel for all bands,
followed by the third pixel for all bands, etc.,
interleaved up to the number of pixels.

• This format provides optimum performance

for spectral (Z) access of the image data.

• Good for hyperspectral images

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121 Digital Image File Formats

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122 Digital Image File Formats: BIP

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123 Digital Image File Formats: BIP

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124 Image file formats
• Many image formats adhere to the simple model shown
below (line by line, no breaks between lines).
• The header contains at least the width and height of the
image.
• Most headers begin with a signature or “magic number”
(i.e., a short sequence of bytes for identifying the file
format)

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125 Digital Image File Formats

Value=image (c, r, b)

Value=image (b, c, r)

Value=image (c, b, r)

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126 Digital Image File Format Storage

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127 Digital Image File Format Storage
• Most of the types of files fall into the category of
bitmaps, for example:

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© Dr. Ouma
UB Geomatics
129

7.0 Applications of Digital Image

Data

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130 Sources of Data & Applications

Civil Engineering

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131 Sources of Data & Applications

Land Surveying

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132 Sources of Data & Applications
Agriculture

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133 Sources of Data & Applications
Environmental Studies

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134 Sources of Data & Applications
Humanitarian Efforts

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135 Sources of Data & Applications
Real Estate

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 136 Applications: 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?
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 137 Applications: 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

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

138

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Applications: Law Enforcement
 Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

139

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Applications: Law Enforcement
140

8. Stages in Digital Image

Processing

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141 What is Digital Image Processing?

• Basic (Low-level) Image Processing Includes

▪ Image quality and statistical evaluation
▪ Radiometric correction
▪ Geometric correction
▪ Image enhancement and sharpening
▪ Image classification
▪ Pixel based
▪ Object-oriented based
▪ Accuracy assessment of classification
▪ Post-classification and GIS
▪ Change detection
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142 Summary
We have looked at:
– What is a digital image?
– What is digital image processing?
– History of digital image processing
– Sources of Digital Data
– Data formats
– State of the art examples of digital image processing
– Key stages in digital image processing
Important:
Acquire some experience with ERDAS Imagine/
MATLAB.
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143

Next class we will start to see

the key stages in Digital Image
Processing!

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UB GEOMATICS CGB 221