Ch.

2 Digital Image
Fundamentals
DIP by Gonzalez 3rd.

Dept. of Computer Science & Engineering

Chittagong University of Engineering & Technology
Kaushik Deb, Ph.D.
 Introduction
• The mechanics of the human visual syste
m, including:
– image formation in the eye and its capabili
ties for brightness adaptation and discrimina
tion
 Structure of the human eye
• The eye is nearly a sphere with average
diameter ~ 20mm
• Three membranes enclose the eye:
– The cornea and sclera (outer cover)
 2.1 Elements of Visual Perception
• 2.1.1 Human Eye
• Retina : Cone & Rod
– Cones 6~7 mil. around fovea
• Photopic or Bright-light vision, Color Vision
– Rod : 75~150 mil. Distributed over retina
• Scoptic or dim-light vision, Non color vision
– Blind Spot : 20 degree off from fovea
– Fovea : d~1.5mm
 How does the human eye work?
• Light passes through the cornea and the
pupil, is focused by the lens and its proje
cted onto the black wall of the eye, which
is called retina
• The retina is made up of several layers of
cells
• It is on the back of the of the retina wher
e images are captured, much like film in a
camera
• Two kinds of light-sensitive receptor cells
, called rods and cones, convert light int
o “messages”
• These messages are sent to the brain vi
a the optic nerve
• Each eye has what is called a blind spot
– This is where the optic nerve leaves the eye
and there are no rods and cones
– One does not usually notice the blind spot
in each eye because the left eye sees what t
he right eye misses and vice versa
• Rod cells enable us to see in dim light
• Rod cells perceive black, white and grays,
but not color
• At night, it is the rod cells that enable
us to see in black, white, and shades of
gray
• Cone cells do not respond to dim light b
ut do allow us to see colors in a lighted
environment. They also detects fine det
ails
• There are about 125 million rods and 6
million cons in each retina
• They help us see between 150 and 200 d
ifferent colors!
•
 Find our Blind spot!
• A blind spot, also known as a scotoma
• In medical literature is the place in the vi
sual field that corresponds to the lack of
light-detecting photoreceptor cells on t
he optic disc of the retina where the opti
c nerve passes through it
• So the blind spot is not normally perceiv
ed
A O X

• Take a blank sheet of paper and draw the ab

ove table
• Your face should be very close to blank sheet
of paper
• Cover right eye and focus the left eye on the
X.
• Now slowly move away from the screen
• The O will disappear, when the O disappears, t
he image is focused on your blind spot
How is the eye like a camera?
EYE CAMERA
• The lens and cornea focu • The lens focuses light
s light onto the back of t onto a light-sensitive surfa
he retina ce called film
• Muscles change the sha • The lens of a camera can
pe of the lens to focus the be moved back or forwar
image d to focus images
•The mussels in the iris reg •The aperture, like the iris,
ulate the amount of light t regulate the amount of lig
hat reaches the retina ht that reaches the retina
How is the eye like a camera?
EYE CAMERA
• As light enters the eye • Light that enters the
and passes through the len camera refracts and turns i
s and cornea, it refracts, or mages, upside down and
bends. When the light ref backward onto the film
racts, it turns the image up
side down and backward o
nto the retina
Differences between a camera and an eye

• Main difference: An eye is a physiological computation

al element but a camera is a mechanical device. Eye d
oest work independently and its operation correlated
with brain, whereas a camera that does what let it to d
o
• Retina and film: Retina can automatically change its se
nsitivity to light sensitivity depending upon the amoun
t of illumination presented to it. On the other hand in
the camera can never change their sensitivity automati
cally
• Binocular vision: an eye has a blind spot through whic
h all nerves leave to brain. So, normally all living being
s have two eyes. The part of image that blind spot of
one eye cannot cover will cover by the second eye.
• Unlike eyes, cameras don’t have any blind spot and he
nce need only one lens. That is most cameras don’t
have “binocular vision” which is a key characteristic of
eye.
• Automatic focusing: Eye has automatic focusing capab
ility which is controlled by brain. It is neurological. Eyes
can focus objects at any distance automatically but in
the case of cameras it is to be accomplished by a phot
ographer. So it is manual in cameras.
 Monocular vs. Binocular vision
• Human are able to see with both eyes-call this binocul
ar vision (both eye are in the front of the face, and th
e eyes point in same direction )
• Some animal species (most birds-their eyes are opposi
te side of the face and point in opposite direction) hav
e one eyed vision or monocular vision, which means t
heir eyes see the world separately and produce two p
ictures rather than one
• BV is responsible for depth perception, is important f
or athletes who must quickly and accurately judge the
distance between player, the ball, the boundary lines a
nd other objects
 2.2 Light & 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
 2.2 Light & Electromagnetic Spectrum

• But consists a continuous spectrum of colors

ranging from violet at one end to red at the other
• The visible light represents a very small portion of
the electromagnetic spectrum
• On one end of the spectrum are radio waves with
wavelengths billions of times longer than those of
visible light
• On the other hand of the spectrum are gamma
rays with wavelengths millions of time smaller than
those of visible light
 2.2 Light & Electromagnetic Spectrum

Figure 2.10 The electromagnetic spectrum. The visible spectrum is shown

zoomed to facilitate explanation (The visible light represents a very small
portion of the electromagnetic spectrum )
 What is color ?
• Everybody knows what time is - until you ask him to
explain it. It is same with the color.

• Color: Color or colour (see spelling differences) is th

e visual perceptual property corresponding in huma
ns to the categories called red, yellow, blue, and oth
ers.
• Color derives from the spectrum of light interacting
in the eye with the spectral sensitivities of the light
receptors.
 Digital image

• An image may be defined as a two dimensional function,

f(x, y), where x and y are spatial (plane) coordinates and
the amplitude of f at any pair of coordinates (x, y) is called
the intensity or gray level of the image at that point

• When x, y, and the amplitude values of f are all finite,

discrete quantities, we call the image a digital image
f(x,y) = i(x,y)r(x,y), illumination & reflectance
 Image sampling and quantization
There are numerous ways to acquire images but our
objective to generate digital images from sensed data. To
create digital image, we need to convert the continuous
sensed data into digital form. This involves two processes:
sampling and quantization.
• The basic idea behind sampling and quantization is
illustrated in Fig. 2.16. Fig. 2.16 (a) shows a continuous
image, f(x, y), that we want to convert 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.
• Digitizing the coordinate values is called sampling.
• Digitizing the amplitude values is called the quantization.
2.3 Image Sampling & Quantization
 Cont.
The one dimensional function shown in 2.16 (b) is a plot of
amplitude (gray level) values of the continuous image along
the line segment AB in fig. 2.16 (a).

To sample this function, we take equally spaced samples

along line AB, as shown in fig. 2.16 (c). The samples are
shown as small white squares superimposed on the
function. The set of these discrete locations gives the
sampled function.

The right side of the fig. 2.16 (c) shows the gray level scale
divided into eight discrete levels, ranging from black to
white. The continuous gray levels are quantized simply by
assigning one if the eight discrete gray levels to each
sample. The digital samples resulting from both sampling
and quantization are shown in 2.16(d).
 CCD vs. CMOS

CCD : Charge Coupled Device

CMOS : Complementary Metal Oxide
Semiconductor
 CCD
• A CCD, or a Charged-Coupled Device, is a photosensitive
analog device that records light as a small electrical
charge in each of its pixels or cells. In essence a CCD is
an collection of CCD cells.

• The signal captured by the CCD requires additional

circuitry to convert the analog light data into a
readable digital signal.
 CMOS
• A CMOS, or Complementary Metal Oxide
Semiconductor, each pixel has neighboring
transistors which locally perform the analog to
digital conversion.
CCD and CMOS inside
 How Image Sensors Work,,,

• Both CCD and CMOS sensors work by employing

photosensitive circuitry that reacts to light and
stores the analog signals as digital data, namely an
image.
CCD and CMOS Uses
 CCD vs CMOS
• Create high-quality, low-noise • More susceptible to noise
images.
• Light sensitivity is higher • Light sensitivity is lower
• 100 times more power • Consume little power
• Needs extra circuitry to convert • On-chip analog-to-digital
conversion
to digital signal
A CMOS Sensor