BEC007-Digital Image Processing

UNIT I
DIGITAL IMAGE FUNDAMENTAL

• Elements of digital image processing systems

• Elements of Visual perception
• Image sampling and quantization
• Matrix and Singular Value representation of discrete
images.
 What is a Digital Image?
•A digital image is a representation of a two-
dimensional image as a finite set of digital values, called
picture elements or pixels
Cont..

•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
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
cont…
The continuum from image processing to computer
vision can be broken up into low-, mid- and high-
level processes
 History of Digital Image Processing

•Early 1920s: One of the first applications of digital

imaging was in the news-
paper industry
– The Bartlane cable picture
transmission service
– 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
 History of DIP (cont…)

•Mid to late 1920s: Improvements to the

Bartlane system resulted in higher quality images
– New reproduction
processes based
on photographic
techniques
– Increased number
of tones in Improved
reproduced images digital image Early 15 tone digital image
 History of DIP (cont…)

•1960s: Improvements in computing 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
in other space missions
including the Apollo landings A picture of the moon taken by
the Ranger 7 probe minutes
before landing
 History of DIP (cont…)

•1970s: Digital image processing begins to 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 image
Tomography (CAT) scans
 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
 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
 Image Processing Fields

• Computer Graphics: The creation of images

• Image Processing: Enhancement or other

manipulation of the image

• Computer Vision: Analysis of the image content

 Image Processing Fields

Input / Image Description

Output
Image Image Computer
Processing Vision
Description Computer AI
Graphics
Sometimes, Image Processing is defined as “a
discipline in which both the input and output of a
process are images

But, according to this classification, trivial tasks

of computing the average intensity of an image
would not be considered an image processing
operation
 Computerized Processes Types

• Low-Level Processes:
– Input and output are images
– Tasks: Primitive operations, such as, image
processing to reduce noise, contrast enhancement
and image sharpening
 Computerized Processes Types

• Mid-Level Processes:
– Inputs, generally, are images. Outputs are
attributes extracted from those images (edges,
contours, identity of individual objects)
– Tasks:
• Segmentation (partitioning an image into
regions or objects)
• Description of those objects to reduce them to a
form suitable for computer processing
• Classifications (recognition) of objects
 Computerized Processes Types

• High-Level Processes:
– Image analysis and computer vision
 Digital Image Definition

• An image can be defined as a two-dimensional

function f(x,y)
• x,y: Spatial coordinate
• F: the amplitude of any pair of coordinate x,y, which
is called the intensity or gray level of the image at
that point.
• X,y and f, are all finite and discrete quantities.
 Fundamental Steps in Digital Image Processing:
Outputs of these processes generally are images
Wavelets &

Outputs of these processes generally are image attributes

Colour Image Image Morphological
Multiresolution
Processing Compression Processing
processing

Image
Restoration
Segmentation

Image Knowledge Base

Enhancement Representation
& Description

Image
Acquisition Object
Recognition

Problem Domain
 Fundamental Steps in DIP: (Description)

Step 1: Image Acquisition

The image is captured by a sensor (eg. Camera), and
digitized if the output of the camera or sensor is not
already in digital form, using analogue-to-digital
convertor
 Fundamental Steps in DIP: (Description)

Step 2: Image Enhancement

The process of manipulating an image so that the
result is more suitable than the original for specific
applications.

The idea behind enhancement techniques is to bring

out details that are hidden, or simple to highlight
certain features of interest in an image.
 Fundamental Steps in DIP: (Description)

Step 3: Image Restoration

- Improving the appearance of an image

- Tend to be mathematical or probabilistic models.

Enhancement, on the other hand, is based on human
subjective preferences regarding what constitutes a
“good” enhancement result.
 Fundamental Steps in DIP: (Description)

Step 4: Colour Image Processing

Use the colour of the image to extract features of
interest in an image
 Fundamental Steps in DIP: (Description)

Step 5: Wavelets
Are the foundation of representing images in various
degrees of resolution. It is used for image data
compression.
 Fundamental Steps in DIP: (Description)

Step 6: Compression
Techniques for reducing the storage required to save
an image or the bandwidth required to transmit it.
 Fundamental Steps in DIP: (Description)

Step 7: Morphological Processing

Tools for extracting image components that are useful
in the representation and description of shape.

In this step, there would be a transition from

processes that output images, to processes that output
image attributes.
 Fundamental Steps in DIP: (Description)

Step 8: Image Segmentation

Segmentation procedures partition an image into its
constituent parts or objects.

Important Tip: The more accurate the

segmentation, the more likely recognition is to
succeed.
 Fundamental Steps in DIP: (Description)

Step 9: Representation and Description

- Representation: Make a decision whether the data
should be represented as a boundary or as a complete
region. It is almost always follows the output of a
segmentation stage.
- Boundary Representation: Focus on external
shape characteristics, such as corners and
inflections (‫)اﻧﺤﻨﺎءات‬
- Region Representation: Focus on internal
properties, such as texture or skeleton (‫ )ھﯿﻜﻠﯿﺔ‬shape
 Fundamental Steps in DIP: (Description)

Step 9: Representation and Description

- Choosing a representation is only part of the solution
for transforming raw data into a form suitable for
subsequent computer processing (mainly recognition)

- Description: also called, feature selection, deals with

extracting attributes that result in some information of
interest.
 Fundamental Steps in DIP: (Description)

Step 9: Recognition and Interpretation

Recognition: the process that assigns label to an
object based on the information provided by its
description.
 Fundamental Steps in DIP: (Description)

Step 10: Knowledge Base

Knowledge about a problem domain is coded into an
image processing system in the form of a knowledge
database.
 Components of an Image Processing System

Network

Image displays Computer Mass storage

Specialized image Image processing

Hardcopy
processing hardware software

Typical general-
Image sensors purpose DIP
Problem Domain system
 Components of an Image Processing System

1. Image Sensors
Two elements are required to acquire digital images.
The first is the physical device that is sensitive to the
energy radiated by the object we wish to image
(Sensor). The second, called a digitizer, is a device
for converting the output of the physical sensing
device into digital form.
 Components of an Image Processing System
2. Specialized Image Processing Hardware
Usually consists of the digitizer, mentioned before,
plus hardware that performs other primitive
operations, such as an arithmetic logic unit (ALU),
which performs arithmetic and logical operations in
parallel on entire images.
This type of hardware sometimes is called a front-
end subsystem, and its most distinguishing
characteristic is speed. In other words, this unit
performs functions that require fast data throughputs
that the typical main computer cannot handle.
 Components of an Image Processing System

3. Computer
The computer in an image processing system is a
general-purpose computer and can range from a PC
to a supercomputer. In dedicated applications,
sometimes specially designed computers are used to
achieve a required level of performance.
 Components of an Image Processing System

4. Image Processing Software

Software for image processing consists of
specialized modules that perform specific tasks. A
well-designed package also includes the capability
for the user to write code that, as a minimum,
utilizes the specialized modules.
 Components of an Image Processing System
5. Mass Storage Capability
Mass storage capability is a must in a image
processing applications. And image of sized 1024 *
1024 pixels requires one megabyte of storage space
if the image is not compressed.
Digital storage for image processing applications
falls into three principal categories:
1. Short-term storage for use during processing.
2. on line storage for relatively fast recall
3. Archival storage, characterized by infrequent
access
 Components of an Image Processing System
5. Mass Storage Capability
One method of providing short-term storage is
computer memory. Another is by specialized boards,
called frame buffers, that store one or more images
and can be accessed rapidly.
The on-line storage method, allows virtually
instantaneous image zoom, as well as scroll (vertical
shifts) and pan (horizontal shifts). On-line storage
generally takes the form of magnetic disks and
optical-media storage. The key factor characterizing
on-line storage is frequent access to the stored data.
 Components of an Image Processing System

6. Image Displays
The displays in use today are mainly color
(preferably flat screen) TV monitors. Monitors are
driven by the outputs of the image and graphics
display cards that are an integral part of a computer
system.
 Components of an Image Processing System

7. Hardcopy devices
Used for recording images, include laser printers,
film cameras, heat-sensitive devices, inkjet units and
digital units, such as optical and CD-Rom disks.
 Components of an Image Processing System

8. Networking
Is almost a default function in any computer system,
in use today. Because of the large amount of data
inherent in image processing applications the key
consideration in image transmission is bandwidth.

In dedicated networks, this typically is not a

problem, but communications with remote sites via
the internet are not always as efficient.
 Elements of Visual perception

Structure of the human eye

• The cornea and sclera outer cover
• The choroid
– Ciliary body
– Iris diaphragm
– Lens
• The retina
– Cones vision (photopic/bright-light vision):
centered at fovea, highly sensitive to color
– Rods (scotopic/dim-light vision): general view
– Blind spot
44
Human eye

45
Cones vs. Rods
Hexagonal pixel

Cone distribution on the

fovea (200,000 cones/mm2)

•Models human visual system more precisely

•The distance between a given pixel and its
immediate neighbors is the same
•Hexagonal sampling requires 13% fewer
samples than rectangular sampling
•ANN can be trained with less errors
 More on the cone
mosaic

The cone mosaic of fish retina

Lythgoe, Ecology of Vision (1979)

Human retina mosaic The mosaic array of most

-Irregularity reduces visual vertebrates is regular
acuity for high-frequency signals
-Introduce random noise
A mosaicked multispectral camera
 Brightness adaptation

• Dynamic range of
human visual system
– 10-6 ~ 104
• Cannot accomplish this
range simultaneously
• The current sensitivity
level of the visual
system is called the
brightness adaptation
level

50
 Brightness discrimination

• Weber ratio (the experiment) DIc/I

– I: the background illumination
– DIc : the increment of illumination
– Small Weber ratio indicates good discrimination
– Larger Weber ratio indicates poor discrimination
 Psychovisual effects

• The perceived
brightness is not a
simple function of
intensity
– Mach band pattern
– Simultaneous
contrast

52
 Image formation in the eye

• Flexible lens
• Controlled by the tension in the fibers of the
ciliary body
– To focus on distant objects?
– To focus on objects near eye?
– Near-sighted and far-sighted
 Image formation in the eye

Light receptor Brain

radiant electrical
energy impulses
 A simple image formation model

• f(x,y): the intensity is called the gray level for

monochrome image
• f(x, y) = i(x, y).r(x, y)
– 0 < i(x, y) < inf, the illumination (lm/m2)
– 0< r(x, y) < 1, the reflectance
• Some illumination figures (lm/m2)
– 90,000: full sun - 0.01: black
velvet
– 10,000: cloudy day - 0.93: snow
– 0.1: full moon
– 1,000: commercial office
 Camera exposure

• ISO number
– Sensitivity of the film or the sensor
– Can go as high as 1,600 and 3,200
• Shutter speed
– How fast the shutter is opened and closed
• f/stop
– The size of aperture
– 1.0 ~ 32
Sampling and Quantization
 Uniform sampling

• Digitized in spatial domain (IM x N)

• M and N are usually integer powers of two
• Nyquist theorem and Aliasing

Sampled
(0,0) (0,1) (0,2) (0,3) (0,0) (0,0) (0,2) (0,2)
by 2
(1,0) (1,1) (1,2) (1,3) (0,0) (0,0) (0,2) (0,2)
(2,0) (2,1) (2,2) (2,3) (2,0) (2,0) (2,2) (2,2)
(3,0) (3,1) (3,2) (3,3) (2,0) (2,0) (2,2) (2,2)
• Non-uniform sampling
– communication
 More on aliasing

 Aliasing (the Moire effect)

59
original Sampled by 2 Sampled by 4

Sampled by 8 Sampled by 16
 Uniform quantization

• Digitized in amplitude (or pixel value)

• PGM – 256 levels  4 levels

255 3

192
2

128

1
64

0 0
original 128 levels (7 bits) 16 levels (4 bits)

4 levels (2 bits) 2 levels (1 bit)

 Image resolution
• Spatial resolution
– Line pairs per unit distance
– Dots/pixels per unit distance
• dots per inch - dpi
• Intensity resolution
– Smallest discernible change in intensity level

• The more samples in a fixed range, the higher the

resolution
• The more bits, the higher the resolution
 3D interpretation of line drawing
• Emulation approach
– A given 3-D interpretation is considered less likely
to be correct if some angles between the wires are
much larger than others
Representing digital images

Every pixel has a # of bits.

 Digital Image Representation Coordinate Conventions

• The result of sampling and quantization is a matrix of real

numbers
• There are two principle ways to represent a digital image:
– Assume that an image f(x,y) is sampled so that the resulting
image has M rows and N columns. We say that the image is
of size
M x N. The values of the coordinates (x,y) are discrete
quantities. For clarity, we use integer values for these
discrete coordinates.
In many image processing books, the image origin is
defined to be at (x,y) = (0,0). The next coordinate values
along the first row of the image are (x,y) = (0,1). It is
important to keep in mind that the notation (0,1) is used to
signify the second sample along the first row. It does not
mean that these are the actual values of physical
coordinates. Note that x ranges from 0 to M-1, and y ranges
from 0 to N-1. Figure (a)
Digital Image Representation Coordinate Conventions

– The coordinate convention used in toolbox to

denote arrays is different from the preceding
paragraph in two minor ways.
• Instead of using (x,y) the toolbox uses the
notation (r,c) to indicate rows and columns.
• The origin of the coordinate system is at (r,c) =
(1,1); thus, r ranges from 1 to M and c from 1 to
N, in integer increments. This coordinate
convention is shown in Figure (b).
Digital Image Representation Coordinate Conventions

(A) (B)
 Digital Image Representation
Images as Matrices

• The coordination system in figure (A) and the

preceding discussion lead to the following
representation for a digitized image function:
 Digital Image Representation
Images as Matrices

• The right side of the equation is a digital image by

definition. Each element of this array is called an
image element, picture element, pixel or pel.
• A digital image can be represented naturally as a
MATLAB matrix:

Where f(1,1) = f(0,0). Clearly, the two

representations are identical, except for the
shift in origin.
 Pixels!

• Every pixel has # of bits (k)

• Q: Suppose a pixel has 1 bit, how many gray levels can it represent?
Answer: 2 intensity levels only, black and white.
Bit (0,1)  0:black , 1: white

• Q: Suppose a pixel has 2 bit, how many gray levels can it represent?
Answer: 4 gray intensity levels
2Bit (00, 01, 10 ,11).

Now ..
if we want to represent 256 intensities of grayscale, how many bits do we need?
Answer: 8 bits  which represents: 28=256
so, the gray intensities ( L ) that the pixel can hold, is calculated according to according to
number of pixels it has (k). L= 2k
 Number of storage of bits:

N * M: the no. of pixels in all the

image.
K: no. of bits in each pixel
L: grayscale levels the pixel can
represent
L= 2K
all bits in image= N*N*k
 Number of storage of bits:

EX: Here: N=32, K=3, L = 23 =8

# of pixels=N*N = 1024 . (because in this example: M=N)
# of bits = N*N*K = 1024*3= 3072

N=M in this table, which means no. of horizontal pixels= no. of vertical pixels. And
thus:
# of pixels in the image= N*N
 Spatial and gray-level resolution

• Sampling is the principal factor determining the spatial

resolution of an image
• Basically, spatial resolution is the smallest discernible
detail in an image.
• Spatial Resolution
Spatial and gray-level resolution
 Spatial and gray-level resolution

• Gray-level resolution refers to the smallest discernible

change in gray level.
 Spatial and gray-level resolution

Sub sampling

Same # of bits in all images (same gray

level)
different # of pixels

subSampling is performed by deleting rows and columns from the original image.
 Spatial and gray-level resolution
Re sampling
(pixel replication)
A special case of nearest
neighbor zooming.

Resampling is performed by row and column duplication

 UNIT II
IMAGE TRANSFORMS
• 1D DFT
• 2D DFT
• Cosine
• Sine Hadamard
• Hear
• Slant
• KL
• SVD transform and their properties.
 Image Transforms

• Many times, image processing tasks are best

performed in a domain other than the
spatial domain.
• Key steps
(1) Transform the image
(2) Carry the task(s) in the transformed domain.
(3) Apply inverse transform to return to the
spatial domain.
 Transformation Kernels

• Forward Transformation
forward transformation kernel

M 1 N 1
T (u, v)   f ( x, y)r ( x, y, u, v)
x 0 y 0
u  0,1,..., M  1, v 0,1,..., N  1

inverse transformation kernel

• Inverse Transformation
M 1 N 1
f ( x, y )   T (u, v)s( x, y, u, v)
u 0 v 0
x  0,1,..., M  1, y  0,1,..., N  1
 Kernel Properties

• A kernel is said to be separable if:

r ( x, y, u, v)  r1 ( x, u )r2 ( y, v)

• A kernel is said to be symmetric if:

r ( x, y, u, v)  r1 ( x, u )r1 ( y, v)
 Fourier Series Theorem

• Any periodic function f(t) can be expressed as a

weighted sum (infinite) of sine and cosine
functions of varying frequency:

is called the “fundamental frequency”

Fourier Series (cont’d)

α1

α2

α3
 Continuous Fourier Transform (FT)

• Transforms a signal (i.e., function) from the spatial

(x) domain to the frequency (u) domain.

where
 Definitions

• F(u) is a complex function:

• Magnitude of FT (spectrum):

• Phase of FT:

• Magnitude-Phase representation:

• Power of f(x): P(u)=|F(u)|2=

 Why is FT Useful?
• Easier to remove undesirable frequencies in the
frequency domain.

• Faster to perform certain operations in the frequency

domain than in the spatial domain.
 Example: Removing undesirable frequencies

noisy signal frequencies

To remove certain remove high reconstructed

frequencies signal
frequencies, set their
corresponding F(u)
coefficients to zero!
 How do frequencies show up in an image?

• Low frequencies correspond to slowly varying pixel

intensities (e.g., continuous surface).
• High frequencies correspond to quickly varying pixel
intensities (e.g., edges)

Original Image Low-passed

 Example of noise reduction using FT

Input image Spectrum (frequency domain)

Band-reject Output image

filter
 Frequency Filtering: Main Steps

1. Take the FT of f(x):

2. Remove undesired frequencies:

3. Convert back to a signal:

 Example: rectangular pulse

magnitude

rect(x) function sinc(x)=sin(x)/x

 Example: impulse or “delta” function

• Definition of delta function:

• Properties:
 Example: impulse or “delta” function (cont’d)

• FT of delta function:

x
u
 Example: spatial/frequency shifts

f ( x)  F (u ), then
Special Cases:

 j 2ux0  j 2ux0
(1) f ( x  x 0 )  e F (u )  ( x  x0 )  e

j 2u 0 x
(2) f ( x)e j 2u0 x
 F (u  u 0 ) e   (u  u 0 )
 Example: sine and cosine functions

• FT of the cosine function

cos(2πu0x) F(u)

1/2
 Example: sine and cosine functions (cont’d)

• FT of the sine function

jF(u)
sin(2πu0x)
 Extending FT in 2D

• Forward FT

• Inverse FT
 Example: 2D rectangle function

• FT of 2D rectangle function

2D sinc()

top view
Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT)
 Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) (cont’d)

• Forward DFT

• Inverse DFT

1/(NΔx)
Example
 Extending DFT to 2D

• Assume that f(x,y) is M x N.

• Forward DFT

• Inverse DFT:
 Extending DFT to 2D (cont’d)

• Special case: f(x,y) is N x N.

• Forward DFT

u,v = 0,1,2, …, N-1

• Inverse DFT

x,y = 0,1,2, …, N-1

 Extending DFT to 2D (cont’d)

2D cos/sin functions

Interpretation:
 Visualizing DFT

• Typically, we visualize |F(u,v)|

• The dynamic range of |F(u,v)| is typically very large

• Apply streching: (c is const)

|F(u,v)| |D(u,v)|

original image before stretching after stretching

 DFT Properties: (1) Separability

• The 2D DFT can be computed using 1D transforms

only:

Forward DFT:
kernel is ux  vy ux vy
 j 2 ( )  j 2 ( )  j 2 ( )
separable: N N N
e e e
 DFT Properties: (1) Separability (cont’d)

• Rewrite F(u,v) as follows:

• Let’s set:

• Then:
 DFT Properties: (1) Separability (cont’d)

• How can we compute F(x,v)?

N x DFT of rows of f(x,y)

• How can we compute F(u,v)?

DFT of cols of F(x,v)

DFT Properties: (1) Separability (cont’d)
 DFT Properties: (2) Periodicity

• The DFT and its inverse are periodic with period N

DFT Properties: (3) Symmetry
 DFT Properties: (4) Translation

f(x,y) F(u,v)

• Translation in spatial domain:

• Translation in frequency domain:

)
N
 DFT Properties: (4) Translation (cont’d)

• To show a full period, we need to translate the origin

of the transform at u=N/2 (or at (N/2,N/2) in 2D)

|F(u)|

|F(u-N/2)|
 DFT Properties: (4) Translation (cont’d)

)
N

• To move F(u,v) at (N/2, N/2), take

)
N
DFT Properties: (4) Translation (cont’d)

sinc sinc

no translation after translation

 DFT Properties: (5) Rotation

• Rotating f(x,y) by θ rotates F(u,v) by θ

 DFT Properties: (6) Addition/Multiplication

but …
 DFT Properties: (8) Average value

Average:

F(u,v) at u=0, v=0:

So:
 Magnitude and Phase of DFT

• What is more important?

magnitude phase

• Hint: use the inverse DFT to reconstruct the input

image using only magnitude or phase information
Magnitude and Phase of DFT (cont’d)

Reconstructed image using

magnitude only
(i.e., magnitude determines the
strength of each component)

Reconstructed image using

phase only
(i.e., phase determines
the phase of each component)
 Magnitude and Phase of DFT (cont’d)

only phase

only magnitude phase (woman) phase (rectangle)

magnitude (rectangle) magnitude (woman)