DIGITAL IMAGE PROCESSING Lecture no.

3
LIGHT AND THE ELECTROMAGNETIC
SPECTRUM
In 1666, Sir Isaac Newton discovered
that when a beam of sunlight is passed
through a glass prism, the emerging
beam of light is not white but consists
instead of a continuous spectrum of
colors ranging from violet at one end to
red at the other.

FIGURE 1The electromagnetic spectrum. The visible spectrum is shown zoomed to facilitate
explanation, but note that the visible spectrum is a rather narrow portion of the EM spectrum.
WAVELENGTH AND FREQUENCY
The range of colors we perceive in The electromagnetic spectrum can be
visible light represents a very small expressed in terms of wavelength,
portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. frequency, or energy.
On one end of the spectrum are radio Wavelength ( ) and frequency( ) are
waves with wavelengths billions of times related by the expression
longer than those of visible light.
On the other end of the spectrum are
gamma rays with wavelengths millions of where c is the speed of light (2.998*108
times smaller than those of visible light. ms).
ENERGY
The energy of the various components of The units of wavelength are meters, with
the electromagnetic spectrum is given by the terms microns (denoted m and equal
the expression. to 10–6 m) and nanometers (10–9 m)
being used just as frequently.

where h is Planck’s constant.

FREQUENCY
Frequency is measured in Hertz (Hz),
with one Hertz being equal to one cycle
of a sinusoidal wave per second.

Figure 2. Graphical representation of one wavelength.

HOW COLORS ARE PERCEIVED AS WAVELENGTHS
For example, green objects reflect light The term gray level generally is used to
with wavelengths primarily in the 500 to describe monochromatic intensity
570 nm range while absorbing most of because it ranges from black, to grays,
the energy at other wavelengths. and finally to white.

Light that is void of color is called

achromatic or monochromatic light.

The only attribute of such light is its

intensity, or amount.
IMAGE SENSING AND ACQUISITION
The types of images in which we are Similarly, the scene elements could be familiar
interested are generated by the combination objects, but they can just as easily be
of an “illumination” source and the reflection molecules, buried rock formations, or a human
or absorption of energy from that source by brain.
the elements of the “scene” being imaged.
We could even image a source, such as
acquiring images of the sun.
For example, the illumination may originate
from a source of electromagnetic energy
such as radar, infrared, or X-ray energy. Depending on the nature of the source,
illumination energy is reflected from, or
But, as noted earlier, it could originate from transmitted through, objects.
less traditional, sources, such as ultrasound or
even a computer-generated illumination
pattern.
SOME EXAMPLES
An example in the first category is light
reflected from a planar surface An
example in the second category is when
X-rays pass through a patient’s body for
the purpose of generating a diagnostic
X-ray film.
SENSING IMAGES AND SENSORS
The idea is simple: Incoming energy is
transformed into a voltage by the
combination of input electrical power and
sensor material that is responsive to the
particular type of energy being detected.

The output voltage waveform is the response

of the sensor(s), and a digital quantity is
obtained from each sensor by digitizing its
response.

Figure 3. shows the three principal sensor arrangements

used to transform illumination energy into digital
images.
A)single image sensor. B) line sensor. C)array sensor.
2D IMAGE SENSING
Perhaps the most familiar sensor of this type is the
photodiode, which is constructed of silicon materials
and whose output voltage waveform is proportional
to light.
The use of a filter in front of a sensor improves
selectivity.
For example, a green (pass) filter in front of a light
sensor favors light in the green band of the color
spectrum.
As a consequence, the sensor output will be stronger
for green light than for other components in the
visible spectrum.
In order to generate a 2-D image using a single
sensor, there has to be relative displacements in both
the x- and y-directions between the sensor and the Figure 4. combining a single sensor with motion to
area to be imaged. generate a 2-D image.
FIGURE 5 An example of the digital image acquisition process. (a) Energy (“illumination”) source. (b) An element
of a scene. (c) Imaging system. (d) Projection of the scene onto the image plane. (e) Digitized image.
IMAGE FORMATION MODEL

Images are denoted by two-dimensional When an image is generated from a

functions of the form f(x, y). physical process, its values are
proportional to energy radiated by a
The value or amplitude of (f) at spatial physical source.
coordinates (x, y) is a positive scalar
quantity whose physical meaning is As a consequence, f(x, y) must be
determined by the source of the image. nonzero and finite; that is,
Most of the images we are interested in 0<f(x, y)<inf
are monochromatic images, whose values
are said to span the gray scale.
IMAGE FORMATION MODEL
ACCORDING TO ILLUMINATION AND REFLECTANCE
The function f(x, y) may be Appropriately, these are called the
characterized by two components: illumination and reflectance components
and are denoted by i(x, y) and r(x, y),
(1) the amount of source illumination respectively.
incident on the scene being viewed,
The two functions combine as a product
and (2) the amount of illumination to form f(x, y).
reflected by the objects in the scene.
Hence,
f(x, y)=i(x, y)r(x, y)
IMAGE SAMPLING AND QUANTIZATION

There are numerous ways to acquire To create a digital image, we need to

images, but our objective in all is the convert the continuous sensed data into
same: to generate digital images from digital form.
sensed data.
This involves two processes: sampling and
The output of most sensors is a continuous quantization.
voltage waveform whose amplitude
and spatial behavior are related to the
physical phenomenon being sensed.
FIGURE 6 Generating a digital image. (a) Continuous image. (b) A scan line from A to B in the continuous image,
used to illustrate the concepts of sampling and quantization. (c) Sampling and quantization. (d) Digital scan line.
COORDINATES=SAMPLING
AMPLITUDE= QUANTIZATION
The basic idea behind sampling and Digitizing the coordinate values is called
quantization is illustrated in Fig. 6. sampling. Digitizing the amplitude values
is called quantization.
Figure 6(a) shows a continuous image,
f(x, y), that we want to convert to digital
form.
An image may be continuous with
respect to the x- and y-coordinates, and
also in amplitude.
To convert it to digital form, we have to
sample the function in both coordinates
and in amplitude.
A PRACTICAL OVERVIEW TO SAMPLING
Sampling in the manner just described
assumes that we have a continuous
image in both coordinate directions as
well as in amplitude.
In practice, the method of sampling is
determined by the sensor arrangement
used to generate the image.