Digital Image Processing:
Contents
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-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, colours, heights, opacities etc
1 pixel
Common
1 3 4
What is a Digital Image? (cont)
image formats include:
sample per point (B&W or Grayscale) samples per point (Red, Green, and Blue)
samples per point (Red, Green, Blue, and Alpha, a.k.a. Opacity)
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 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
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 Images were transferred by submarine cable between London and New York
Early digital image
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 Bartlane system resulted in higher quality images
New reproduction processes based on photographic techniques
Increased number of tones in reproduced images
Improved digital image
Early 15 tone digital image
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
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 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
Typical head slice CAT 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 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 Hubbles 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 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
Digital image processing techniques are used extensively to manipulate satellite imagery Terrain classification Meteorology
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
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
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 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
user
interface from Minority Report? tasks can be extremely difficult
These
Key Stages in Digital Image Processing
Image Restoration Morphological Processing
Image Enhancement
Segmentation
Image Acquisition
Object Recognition
Problem Domain Colour Image Processing Image Compression
Representation & Description
Key Stages in Digital Image Processing: Image Aquisition Image Morphological
Restoration Processing Image Enhancement
Segmentation
Image Acquisition
Object Recognition
Problem Domain Colour Image Processing Image Compression
Representation & Description
Key Stages in Digital Image Processing: Image Enhancement Image Morphological
Restoration Processing Image Enhancement
Segmentation
Image Acquisition
Object Recognition
Problem Domain Colour Image Processing Image Compression
Representation & Description
Key Stages in Digital Image Processing: Image Restoration Image Morphological
Restoration Processing Image Enhancement
Segmentation
Image Acquisition
Object Recognition
Problem Domain Colour Image Processing Image Compression
Representation & Description
Key Stages in Digital Image Processing: Morphological Processing Image Morphological
Restoration Processing Image Enhancement
Segmentation
Image Acquisition
Object Recognition
Problem Domain Colour Image Processing Image Compression
Representation & Description
Key Stages in Digital Image Processing: Segmentation Image Morphological
Restoration Processing Image Enhancement
Segmentation
Image Acquisition
Object Recognition
Problem Domain Colour Image Processing Image Compression
Representation & Description
Key Stages in Digital Image Processing: Object Recognition Image Morphological
Restoration Processing Image Enhancement
Segmentation
Image Acquisition
Object Recognition
Problem Domain Colour Image Processing Image Compression
Representation & Description
Key Stages in Digital Image Processing: Representation & Description Image Morphological
Restoration Processing Image Enhancement
Segmentation
Image Acquisition
Object Recognition
Problem Domain Colour Image Processing Image Compression
Representation & Description
Key Stages in Digital Image Processing: Image Compression Image Morphological
Restoration Processing Image Enhancement
Segmentation
Image Acquisition
Object Recognition
Problem Domain Colour Image Processing Image Compression
Representation & Description
Key Stages in Digital Image Processing: Colour ImageImage ProcessingMorphological
Restoration Processing Image Enhancement
Segmentation
Image Acquisition
Object Recognition
Problem Domain Colour Image Processing Image Compression
Representation & Description
Latest Inventions In Image Processing
Intelligent
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