International Journal of Trend in Scientific

Research and Development (IJTSRD)

International Open Access Journal
ISSN No: 2456 - 6470 | www.ijtsrd.com | Volume - 2 | Issue – 2

Image Processing in MATLAB 9.3

Shete S. G. Ghadge Nagnath G.

School of Mathematical Sciences, Assistant
ssistant Professor, Department of
o
S.R.T.M.University, Nanded, Maharashtra
Maharashtra, India Computer Science, Mahatma Basweshwar,
Mahavidyalaya, Latur,, Maharashtra,
Maharashtra India

ABSTRACT
In this paper we introduce how to handle different in MATLAB 9.3, there are many things to keep in
kinds of image formats in MATLAB 9.3 by using mind such as loading an image, using the right format,
Matlab Workspace & its Various Commands. Also we saving the data as different data types, how to display
illustrated example of processing the images
images. an image, conversion between different image
formats, etc. This worksheet presents some of the
Keywords: Image Processing, Image Formats, commands
mmands designed for these operations. Most of
reading Images these commands require you to have the Image
processing tool box installed with MATLAB 9.3. To
find out if it is installing, type ver at the MATLAB
Introduction 9.3 prompt. This gives you a list of what tool boxes
that are installed on your system.
This worksheet is an introduction on how to handle
images in MATLAB 9.3. When working with images

For further reference on image handling in MATLAB Image processing tool box that you can access via
9.3 you are recommended to use MATLAB 9.3's help MATLAB 9.3's help browser.
browser. There is an extensive on-line
line manual for the

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Feb 2018 Page: 925
 International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (IJTSRD) ISSN: 2456-6470
The first sections of this worksheet are quite heavy. Working formats in MATLAB 9.3
The only way to understand how the presented
commands work is to carefully work through the If an image is stored as a JPEG-image on your disc
examples given at the end of the worksheet. Once you we first read it into MATLAB 9.3. However, in order
can get these examples to work, experiment on your to start working with an image, for example perform a
own using your favorite image! wavelet transform on the image, we must convert it
into a different format. This section explains four
Fundamentals common formats.

A digital image is composed of pixels which can be Intensity image (GSI)

thought of as small dots on the screen. A digital image
This is the equivalent to a "Gray Scale Image (GSI)"
is an instruction of how to color each pixel. We will
and this is the image we will mostly work with in this
see in detail later on how this is done in practice. A
course. It represents an image as a matrix where every
typical size of an image is 512-by-512 pixels. Later on
element has a value corresponding to how bright/dark
in the course you will see that it is convenient to let
the pixel at the corresponding position should be
the dimensions of the image to be a power of 2. For
colored. There are two ways to represent the number
example, 24.=16 In the general case we say that an
that represents the brightness of the pixel: The double
image is of size m-by-n if it is composed of m pixels
class (or data type). This assigns a floating number ("a
in the vertical direction and n pixels in the horizontal
number with decimals") between 0 and 1 to each
direction.
pixel. The value 0 corresponds to black and the value
Let us say that we have an image on the format 512- 1 corresponds to white. The other class is called uint8
by-1024 pixels. This means that the data for the image which assigns an integer between 0 and 255 to
must contain information about 524288 pixels, which represent the brightness of a pixel. The value 0
requires a lot of memory! Hence, compressing images corresponds to black and 255 to white. The class uint8
is essential for efficient image processing. You will only requires roughly 1/8 of the storage compared to
later on see how Fourier analysis and Wavelet the class double. On the other hand, many
analysis can help us to compress an image mathematical functions can only be applied to the
significantly. There are also a few "computer double class. We will see later how to convert
scientific" tricks (for example entropy coding) to between double and uint8.
reduce the amount of data required to store an image.
Binary image
Image formats supported by MATLAB 9.3 This image format also stores an image as a matrix
but can only color a pixel black or white (and nothing
The following image formats are supported by in between). It assigns a 0 for black and a 1 for white.
MATLAB 9.3:
 BMP  HDF Indexed image
 PNG  JPEG
 SCT  PCX This is a practical way of representing color images.
 GIF  TIFF (In this course we will mostly work with Gray Scale
 XWB Image (GSI) but once you have learned how to work
with a Gray Scale Image (GSI) you will also know the
Most images you find on the Internet are JPEG- principle how to work with color images.) An indexed
images which is the name for one of the most widely image stores an image as two matrices. The first
used compression standards for images. If you have matrix has the same size as the image and one number
stored an image you can usually see from the suffix for each pixel. The second matrix is called the color
what format it is stored in. For example, an image map and its size may be different from the image. The
named myimage.jpg is stored in the JPEG format and numbers in the first matrix is an instruction of what
we will see later on that we can load an image of this number to use in the color map matrix.
format into MATLAB 9.3. RGB image
This is another format for color images. It represents
an image with three matrices of sizes matching the

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 International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (IJTSRD) ISSN: 2456-6470
image format. Each matrix corresponds to one of the imaging later on in this course, you may use this
colors red, green or blue and gives an instruction of format.
how much of each of these colors a certain pixel
should use. How to convert between different formats

Multiframe image The following table shows how to convert between

the different formats given above. All these commands
In some applications we want to study a sequence of require the Image processing tool box!
images. This is very common in biological and
medical imaging where you might study a sequence of Image format conversion
slices of a cell. For these cases, the multiframe format
(Within the parenthesis you type the name of the
is a convenient way of working with a sequence of
image you wish to convert.)
images. In case you choose to work with biological

Operation: Matlab Command

Convert between intensity format to indexed format.gray2ind()

Convert between indexed format to intensity format. ind2gray()
Convert between indexed format to RGB format. ind2rgb()
Convert a regular matrix to intensity format by scaling . mat2gray()
Convert between RGB format to intensity format. rgb2gray()
Convert between RGB format to indexed format. rgb2ind()

The command mat2gray is useful if you have a matrix that we can, for example, post the processed image on
representing an image but the values representing the the web. This is done using the imread and imwrite
gray scale range between, let's say, 0 and 1000. The commands. These commands require the Image
command mat2gray automatically re scales all entries processing tool box!
so that they fall within 0 and 255 (if you use the uint8
class) or 0 and 1 (if you use the double class). Reading and writing image files

Operation: MATLAB 9.3

How to convert between double and uint8
command:
When you store an image, you should store it as a
uint8 image since this requires far less memory than Read an image. imread()
double. When you are processing an image (that is (Within the parenthesis you type the
performing mathematical operations on an image) you name of the image file you wish to
should convert it into a double. Converting back and read. Put the file name within single
forth between these classes is easy. quotes ' '.)
Write an image to a file. imwrite( , )
I=im2double(I); (As the first argument within the
converts an image named I from uint8 to double. parenthesis you type the name of
the image you have worked with. As
I=im2uint8(I); a second argument within
converts an image named I from double to uint8. the parenthesis you type the name of
the file and format that you
How to read files want to write the image to. Put the
When you encounter an image you want to work with, file name within single quotes ' '.)
it is usually in form of a file (for example, if you
down load an image from the web, it is usually stored Make sure to use semi-colon ; after these commands,
as a JPEG-file). Once we are done processing an otherwise you will get LOTS OF number scrolling on
image, we may want to write it back to a JPEG-file so your screen... The commands imread and imwrite

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 International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (IJTSRD) ISSN: 2456-6470
support the formats given in the section "Image Now open Matla and make sure you are in the same
formats supported by MATLAB 9.3" above. directory as your stored file. (You can check what
files your directory contains by typing ls at the
MATLAB 9.3 prompt. You change directory using
Loading and saving variables in MATLAB 9.3 the command cd.) Now type in the following
commands and see what each command does. (Of
This section explains how to load and save variables course, you do not have to type in the comments
in MATLAB 9.3. Once you have read a file, you given in the code after the % signs.)
probably convert it into an intensity image (a matrix)
and work with this matrix. Once you are done you I=imread('cell1.jpg'); % Load the image file and store
may want to save the matrix representing the image in it as the variable I.
order to continue to work with this matrix at another whos % Type "whos" in order to find out the size and
time. class of all stored variables.
save I % Save the variable I.
This is easily done using the commands save and
ls % List the files in your directory.
load. Note that save and load are commonly used
There should now be a file named "I.mat" in you
MATLAB 9.3 commands, and works independently
directory containing your variable I.
of what tool boxes that are installed.
Note that all variables that you save in MATLAB 9.3
Loading and saving variables
usually get the suffix .mat.
Operation MATLAB 9.3
Command Next we will see that we can display an image using
Save the Variable X. save x the command imshow. This command requires the
Load the Variable X load x image processing tool box. Commands for displaying
images will be explained in more detail in the section
Examples "How to display images in MATLAB 9.3" below.

In the first example we will down load an image from clear % Clear MATLAB 9.3's memory.
the web, read it into MATLAB 9.3, investigate its load I % Load the variable I that we saved above.
format and save the matrix representing the image. whos % Check that it was indeed loaded. imshow(I)
% Display the image
Example 1 I=im2double(I); % Convert the variable into double.
whos % Check that the variable indeed was converted
Down load the following image (by clicking on the
into double
image using the right mouse button) and save the file
% The next procedure cuts out the upper left
as cell1.jpg.
corner of the image
% and stores the reduced image as Ired.
for i=1:256
for j=1:256
Ired(i,j)=I(i,j);
end
end
whos % Check what variables you now have stored.
imshow(Ired) % Display the reduced image.

How to display an image in MATLAB 9.3

Here are a couple of basic MATLAB 9.3 commands
(do not require any tool box) for displaying an image.
This is an image of a cell taken by google Images
from robinsonimagelibrary.com

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 International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (IJTSRD) ISSN: 2456-6470
Displaying an image given on matrix form Conclusion:

Operations MATLAB 9.3 Thus here various components of this MATLAB9.3

Command based image Processing have been discussed. The
Display an image represented as imagesc(X) authors have tried their level best to make the image
the matrix X. operations in MATLAB 9.3 user based as possible.
Adjust the brightness. s is a brighten(s) The purpose of the image processing is to bring the
parameter such that -1<s<0 gives various image editing functions available in
a darker image, 0<s<1 gives a MATLAB9.3 tool box under one common platform
brighter image. and to make it easier for the understanding of any
Change the colors to gray. colormap(gray) user. Future work can be aimed to expand the set of
applications than what has been used here.
Sometimes your image may not be displayed in gray
References:
scale even though you might have converted it into a
Gray Scale Image (GSI). You can then use the 1. Digital Image Processing using Matlab By Rafael
command colormap(gray) to "force" MATLAB 9.3 to C. Gonzalez, Richard E. Woods & Steven L.
use a gray scale when displaying an image. Eddins , Pearson Education, Inc. Pearson Prentice-
Hall ISBN - 0-13-008519-7.
If you are using MATLAB 9.3 with an Image
processing tool box installed, I recommend you to use 2. Digital Image Processing 6th revised & extended
the command imshow to display an image. edition, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2005,
ISBN - 3-540-24035-7.
Displaying an image given on matrix form (with
image processing tool box) 3. https://in.mathworks.com/support/books/search.ht
ml?q=&fq=book-category:image-and-video-
Operations MATLAB 9.3 processing&page=1
Command
Display an image Represented Imshow (X) 4. Digital Image Processing: A Signal Processing
as a matrix X and Algorithmic Approach by D sundarajan,
zoom in zoom on ISBN – 978-981-10-6112-7.
Turn off the zoom function. Zoom off

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