Introduction to Image Processing

Jacob Furst
DePaul CTI
 What is an Image?

• A digital representation of a real-world scene. (Graphics is

the digital representation of an imaginary scene.)
• Composed of discrete elements generally called picture
element (or pixels for short)
• Pixels are parameterized by
– position
– intensity
– time
• In all combinations, these parameters define still images,
video, volume data and moving volumes

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 Digital Photographs

• Two spatial parameters

– x, or horizontal position
– y, or vertical position
• Three intensity parameters
– Red
– Green
– Blue

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 Ultrasound

• Two spatial parameters – x and y

• One intensity parameter –
ultrasound reflection
• One time parameter (ultrasound
printouts don’t show this, but the
exam does)

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 Digital X -ray

• Two spatial parameters – x and y

• A single intensity parameter – x-
ray attenuation

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 Digital Video

• Two spatial parameters

– x, or horizontal position
– y, or vertical position
• Three intensity parameters
– Red
– Green
– Blue
• One time parameter – frame #

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 Other Kinds of Images

• Computed Tomography – 3 dimensional x-ray images of the

human body
• Satellite images – 4 intensities – red, green, blue and
infrared
• Functional Magnetic Resonance Images – 3 dimensional
images of the human body over time
• Not all images represent visual phenomena but a
visualization can be a very effective way to understand the
phenomena

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 Talking about a Pixel

• Give the image a name; usually I or f

• Specify all the parameters (space, time) of your image
• The result is the intensity
• For example, a digital image I might have intensity (23, 23,
97) at pixel I(32,215)
- intensity 23 in red
- intensity 23 in green
- intensity 97 in blue
- at the 32 nd column
- at the 215th row
• A CT image f might have intensity 255 at f(67, 95, 13)

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 What is Image Processing

• Image processing typically attempts to accomplish one of

three things
– restoring images
– enhancing images
– understanding images
• Restoration takes a corrupted image and attempts to
recreate a clean original
• Enhancement alters an image to makes its meaning clearer
to human observers
• Understanding usually attempts to mimic the human visual
system in extracting meaning from an image

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 Image Restoration

• Image restoration is important for two main applications

– removing sensor noise
– restoring old, archived film and images
• Many sensors are subject to noise, thus producing corrupted
images that don’t reflect the real world scene accurately
• Old photograph and film archives often show considerable
damage

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 Restoration Example

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 Restoration Example

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 Image Enhancement

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• Often used to increase the contrast in images that are overly dark or light
• Enhancement algorithms often play to humans’ sensitivity to contrast
• More sophisticated algorithms enhance images in a small neighborhood,
allowing overall better enhancement.

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 Image Understanding

• Image understanding includes many different tasks

– segmentation
– classification
– interpretation
• Segmentation involves identifying objects in an image
• Classification assigns labels to individual pixels
• Interpretation extracts some meaning from the image as a
whole
• Leads to such fields as image analysis, computer vision and
visual computing

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 Creating Images

• The creation of images involves two main tasks

– spatial sampling, which determines the resolution of an image
– quantization, which determines how many intensity levels are
allowed
• Spatial sampling determines what level of detail can be seen
– finer sampling allows for smaller detail
– finer sampling requires more pixels and “larger” images
• Quantization determines how “smooth” the contrast changes
in the image are
– finer quantization will prevent “false contouring” (artificial
edges)
– courser quantization allows for compressing images

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 Effect of Spatial Sampling

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 Effect of Spatial Sampling

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 Effect of Quantization

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 Effect of Quantization

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andWoods
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