Applied Image Processing

• Introduction
• Analog Image
• Definition
• Analog Examples/Processing
• Digital Image
• Definition
• Digital Examples/Processing
• Gray Scale and Color
• Common Digital Image Manipulation
• Noise (3-Common Types)
 Introduction
• Practically everything around us involves images and image processing

• IMAGE: An image can be defined as a two-dimensional signal (analog or

digital), that contains intensity (grayscale), or color information arranged along
an x and y spatial axis.

Trivial Example,

Let 1 represent White

Let 0 represent Black

Digitize 0 0 0 0 0
1 1 0 1 1
1 1 0 1 1
1 1 0 1 1
 Analog Images and Processing

Analog Image: Can be mathematically represented as a continuous

range of values representing position and intensity.

Question: How many coordinate points can be used to represent a

2-demsional grid, and how many divisions exist between the numbers
0 and 1?
EXAMPLE 11.1

Restated: for an analog image the intensity can be represented on a

normalized scale from 0 to 1 with infinite divisions, and spatially with
an infinite number of coordinates.

Real Analog picture?

 Examples Of Analog Images/Processors

Analog Photography: Camera and Film:

ƒ Camera is a light-proof box with a small opening (aperture) and a series of

lenses/mirrors to direct and focus light entering the aperture

ƒ A camera contains light-sensitive film positioned so that light passing through

the aperture will encounter it

ƒ Simple Black and White film is made up of a number of layers, one is known
as the emulsion layer which is covered with crystals of silver halide

ƒ Incoming light causes a chemical reaction to take place in the film causing
some of the silver halide crystals to be transformed into silver. The degree to
which the silver halide is converted is dependent on the amount of energy that
is absorbed which is proportional to the color and intensity of the incoming light

ƒ After being exposed the film must be developed before the picture can be
viewed
 Simple Camera

Mirror or Prism

Viewfinder

Translucent Screen

Aperture

Shutter

Incoming Light Pathway

Film
Lens

Mirror
Human Sight: The Eye:

The cornea is the clear front layer of the eye that allows for transmission and
focusing of light into the eye

The iris, the colored part of the eye, contracts and expands to change the size
of the pupil, which is the hole in the center of the iris that regulates the amount
of light entering the eye

The lens is the second part of the eye’s focusing system. Incoming light is first
focused by the cornea and then the lens performs the task of fine tuning the
focus.

Light focused by the lens is projected onto the retina, a layer of nerve cells that
line the back of the eye.

These light sensitive cells convert the light into electrical impulses that travel to
the brain, via the optic nerve, where they are decoded.
 The Eye and Simplified Model
Retina
Lens

Macula Pupil

Fovea
Iris

Cornea

Optic Nerve Vitreous

Blind Spot
(Optic Disk)

Retina

Viewed
Object

Image

Lens
 Digital Images and Processing
Digital Image: a digital image is restricted in both its spatial coordinates
and in its allowed intensities

Their positions and intensities are represented with discrete values, or

elements

The discrete elements that make up a digital image are called picture
elements, or pixels
• Matrices are perfect tools for mapping, representing, digital images

• For example, an image that is 800 pixels wide and 600 pixels high can be
represented as a 600 x 800 matrix (600 rows and 800 columns)

• Each element of the matrix, pixel, is used to represent a intensity. Recall;

Digitize 0 0 0 0 0
1 1 0 1 1
1 1 0 1 1
1 1 0 1 1

Given a 17” computer screen which resolution would produce a higher

quality image?

a. 600 x 800
b. 1024 x 768
• The acquisition of a digital image is a three step process

1). Sample and quantize position

2). Quantize intensity for each quantized position
3). Conversion to binary digits, encoding

• A scanner or digital camera are commonly used for digitizing images

• They contain sensor arrays that react to different intensity and wavelengths.

Incoming Light

Filter
Power In
Light Sensitive
Material

Intensity
Signal
1). Sample and quantize: Make intensity readings at evenly spaced locations in both the
x and y directions Visualized by placing an evenly spaced grid over the analog image

2). Quantize Intensity: quantize the sampled values of intensity to arrive at a signal that
is discrete in both position and amplitude.

3). Encoding: Convert data to binary form.

The sampling rate, must be high enough to capture the required detail.

Sample Image Quantize Image

The range of colors or shades of gray that can be represented in the image
depend on the amount of space allotted

Quantized 8 bits/sample - 256 Shades Quantized 4 bits/sample - 16 Shades

Quantized 2 bits/sample - 4 Shades Quantized 1 bit/sample - 2 Shades

The process of analog to digital signal conversion is completed by

encoding the quantized values into a binary sequence.
 Grayscale

Once a grayscale image has been captured and digitized, it is stored as a two-
dimensional array (a matrix) in computer memory

0 Black

255 White n

Each element contains the quantized intensity, a value ranging from 0 to 255

EXAMPLE 11.2
 Color

• To digitize a grayscale image, we look at the overall intensity level of the

sensed light and record as a function of position.

• To digitize a color image the intensities of each of the three primary colors
must be detectable of the incoming light.

• One way to accomplish this is to filter the light sensed by the sensor so that
it lies within the wavelength range of a specific color.

• We can detect the intensity of that specific color for that specific sample
location

• Note the three primary colors are red, green, and blue. They are defined as
primary because any color of light consists of a combination of frequencies
contained in the three “primary” color ranges
As an example of quantizing a color image consider a computer imaging
systems that utilizes 24 bit color.

For 24 bit color each of the three primary color intensities is allowed one byte of
storage per pixel for a total of three bytes per pixel.

Each color has an allowed numerical range from 0 to 255, for example 0=no
red, 255=all red.

The combinations that can be made with 256 levels for each of the three
primary colors amounts to over 16 million distinct colors ranging from black
(R,G,B) = (0,0,0) to white (R,G,B) = (255,255,255).

Most computers store color digital image information in three dimensional

arrays. The first two indexes in this array specify the row and column of the
pixel and the third index specifies the color “plane” where 1 is red, 2 is green,
and 3 is blue.
 3-Dim array for 24 bit color

0
3

Red m
Green
255
Blue

EXAMPLE 11.3
 Fundamental Color Models

RGB (Red, Green, Blue) used primarily when direct light intensity produces
the color. Additive process, color presence is increased by increasing the
intensity of that color.

CMY (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow) used primarily when indirect or reflected light
intensity, light not absorbed, produces the color. Subtractive process, color
presence is increased by removing the absorbing color.

Referenced: http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu
 Common Digital Image Manipulation

Horizontal and Vertical Flipping: The operation requires only that you
change the order of the rows (vertical flipping) or columns (horizontal flipping)

1 2 3
1 ⎡1 0 1⎤ 3
2 ⎢⎢ 1 0 0 ⎥⎥ 2
3 ⎢⎣ 0 0 1 ⎥⎦ 1

1 2 3 3 2 1
1 ⎡1 0 1⎤
2 ⎢⎢ 1 0 0 ⎥⎥
3 ⎢⎣ 0 0 1 ⎥⎦
Original Image Horizontal Flip

Vertical Flip Horizontal and Vertical Flip

Image Rotation: Simple rotation, clockwise and counterclockwise, taken in 90
degree increments.
Clockwise 900 Rotation Counterclockwise 900 Rotation

⎡1 0 0 ⎤ ⎡0 1 1 ⎤ ⎡1 0 0 ⎤ ⎡0 0 1 ⎤
⎢1 0 0 ⎥ ⎢1 0 0 ⎥ ⎢1 0 0 ⎥ ⎢0 0 1 ⎥
⎢ ⎥ ⎢ ⎥ ⎢ ⎥ ⎢ ⎥
⎢⎣ 0 1 1 ⎥⎦ ⎢⎣ 1 0 0 ⎥⎦ ⎢⎣ 0 1 1 ⎥⎦ ⎢⎣ 1 1 0 ⎥⎦

R1 → C3 C1 → R3
R2 → C2 C2 → R2
R3 → C1 C3 → R1
Image Resizing: To shrink an image to half its original size, we must discard
half of the image’s pixel information. To accomplish, throw out every other row
and column in the image.

256 x 256 128 x 128 64 x 64 32 x 32

 Image Noise

Noise is present in all analog devices, but digital signals have some built-in
tolerance to noise due to the nature of their discreteness.

The three most common types of random noise you are likely to encounter
in images are white noise, salt and pepper noise, and speckle noise.

White Noise: noise with a flat spectrum (meaning that it contains an equal
amount of all frequencies)

Salt and Pepper Noise: a “spike” or impulse noise that drives the intensity
values of random pixels to either their maximum or minimum values. The
resulting black and white flecks in the image resemble salt and pepper.

Speckle Noise: a form of multiplicative noise in which the intensity values

of the pixels in the image are multiplied by random values
 Image Noise Examples

Original Image Image + Gaussian White Noise

Image + Speckle Noise Image + Salt & Pepper Noise

 Image Noise Removal

White Noise
•Most difficult to remove
•Can contain all frequencies in the spectrum
•Low-pass, Band-pass, High-pass????

Salt and Pepper Noise

•Simplest to handle
•Occurs when pixel’s intensities either driven to Min or Max values
• To reduce
•choose a group of pixels in the image, say, for example, a 3x3 neighborhood
around a pixel
•Find the median of these values
•gives a typical intensity value for that neighborhood
•Replace the pixel with the median value and repeat

The median: is defined as the center place holder of an ordered set of numbers,
for an odd number of numbers, or the average value of the two middle numbers, for
an even number of numbers.
EXAMPLE 11.4
 What you should know

1. Difference between an analog and digital image.

2. Difference between the RGB and CMY models