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64 Digital Image Processing:
Introduction
Lecture # 1: Introduction

Saeeda Naz
[email protected]

Department of CS
GGPGC No.1 Abbottabad
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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/
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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
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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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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

Remember digitization implies that a digital
image is an approximation of a real scene

1 pixel
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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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Domain of DIP
• No clear agreement amongst authors
about its boundary
• DIP vs Computer vision- CV (an AI
branch)
– Again no clear cut boundary in the continuum
from DIP to CV: where the former stops and
where the latter starts.
– One can, however, identify three types of
computerized processes on the continuum
• Low level (pure DIP)
• Mid level (the murky boundary between DIP & CV
• High level (pure Vision)
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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 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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History of Digital Image Processing

The first photograph in the world

Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, View from the Window at Le Gras, 1826.
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History of DIP (cont…)
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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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
Improved
of tones (from 5 to digital image
Early 15 tone digital
15 ) in reproduced images image
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History of DIP (cont…)
The images in previous slides are digital; but
they are NOT considered as the results of
DIP
What do we mean by Digital Image
Processing
– Processing digital images by a digital
computer
DIP has been dependent on the
development of digital computers and
other supporting technologies (e.g., data
storage, display and transmission)
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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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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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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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Light And The Electromagnetic
64 Spectrum
Light is just a particular part of the
electromagnetic spectrum that can be
sensed by the human eye
The electromagnetic spectrum is split up
according to the wavelengths of different
forms of energy
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Reflected Light
The colours that we perceive are determined
by the nature of the light reflected from an
object
For example, if white
light is shone onto a Wh
ite Ligh
green object most t
Colours

wavelengths are t
Absorbed

Ligh
Green
absorbed, while green
light is reflected from
the object
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A Physical Perspective of Image
64 Acquisition
Extend the capabilities of human vision
systems
– From visible spectrum to non-visible
electromagnetic power spectrum
– From close-distance sensing to remote
sensing
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Visible (I): Photography
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Visible (II): Motion Pictures
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Visible (III): Law Enhancement and
64 Biometrics
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Visible (IV): Light Microscopy

Taxol (250) Cholesterol (40) Microprocessor (60)

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Visible (V): Remote Sensing

Hurricane Andrew America at night

taken by NOAA GEOS (Nov. 27, 2000)
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Perspectives
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Beyond Visible (I): Thermal Images
Operate in infrared frequency

Human body disperses Different colors indicate

heat (red pixels) varying temperatures
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Beyond Visible (II): Radar Images
Operate in microwave frequency

Moutains in Southeast Tibet

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Beyond Visible (III): MRI and Astronomy
Operate in radio frequency

knee spine head

visible infrared radio

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Beyond Visible (IV): Fluorescence
64 Microscopy
Operate in ultraviolet frequency

normal corn smut corn

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Beyond Visible (V): Medical Diagnostics
Operate in X-ray frequency

chest head
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Beyond Visible (VI): PET and Astronomy
Operate in gamma-ray frequency

Cygnus Loop in the

constellation of Cygnus
Positron Emission Tomography
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Other Non-Electro-Magnetic Imaging
64 Modalities
Acoustic imaging
– Translate “sound waves” into image signals
Electron microscopy
– Shine a beam of electrons through a
speciman
Synthetic images in Computer Graphics
– Computer generated (non-existent in the real
world)
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Acoustic Imaging

visible seismic

potential locations of oil/gas

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Electron Microscope

2500 Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) image of

damaged integrated circuit
(white fibers are oxides resulting from thermal destruction)
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Cartoon Pictures (Non-
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photorealistic)
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Age of Empire III by Ensemble Studios

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Virtual Reality (Photorealistic)
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Graphics in Art
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Graphics in Medicine
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Mixture of Graphics and Photos

Morgantown, WV in Google Map

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Toward the Future: Nano-scale Imaging

New imaging
technology that
can reveal fine
structures at the
nano scale is
going to be useful
In biology (e.g.,
protein sequencing
and folding)