CS 3219-Computer

Graphics
Digital Image Processing
Introduction

“One picture is worth more than ten thousand words”

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

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

Pixel values typically represent gray levels, colours, heights, opacities

etc
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”, a.k.a. Opacity)

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
Some argument about where image processing ends and fields such as
image analysis and computer vision start
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
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
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

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

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

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

Image Object
Acquisition Recognition

Representation
Problem Domain
& Description
Colour Image Image
Processing Compression
Image Mophing
Key Stages in Digital Image Processing:
Image Aquisition
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

Image Morphological
Restoration Processing

Image
Segmentation
Enhancement

Image Object
Acquisition Recognition

Representation
Problem Domain
& Description
Colour Image Image
Processing Compression
Key Stages in Digital Image Processing:
Image Enhancement
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

Image Morphological
Restoration Processing

Image
Segmentation
Enhancement

Image Object
Acquisition Recognition

Representation
Problem Domain
& Description
Colour Image Image
Processing Compression
Key Stages in Digital Image Processing:
Image Restoration
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

Image Morphological
Restoration Processing

Image
Segmentation
Enhancement

Image Object
Acquisition Recognition

Representation
Problem Domain
& Description
Colour Image Image
Processing Compression
Key Stages in Digital Image Processing:
Morphological Processing
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

Image Morphological
Restoration Processing

Image
Segmentation
Enhancement

Image Object
Acquisition Recognition

Representation
Problem Domain
& Description
Colour Image Image
Processing Compression
Key Stages in Digital Image Processing:
Segmentation
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

Image Morphological
Restoration Processing

Image
Segmentation
Enhancement

Image Object
Acquisition Recognition

Representation
Problem Domain
& Description
Colour Image Image
Processing Compression
Key Stages in Digital Image Processing:
Object Recognition
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

Image Morphological
Restoration Processing

Image
Segmentation
Enhancement

Image Object
Acquisition Recognition

Representation
Problem Domain
& Description
Colour Image Image
Processing Compression
Key Stages in Digital Image Processing:
Representation & Description
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

Image Morphological
Restoration Processing

Image
Segmentation
Enhancement

Image Object
Acquisition Recognition

Representation
Problem Domain
& Description
Colour Image Image
Processing Compression
Key Stages in Digital Image Processing:
Image Compression
Image Morphological
Restoration Processing

Image
Segmentation
Enhancement

Image Object
Acquisition Recognition

Representation
Problem Domain
& Description
Colour Image Image
Processing Compression
Key Stages in Digital Image Processing:
Colour Image Processing
Image Morphological
Restoration Processing

Image
Segmentation
Enhancement

Image Object
Acquisition Recognition

Representation
Problem Domain
& Description
Colour Image Image
Processing Compression
Summary
We have looked at:
• 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
Next time we will start to see how it all works…