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TITLE:
DIGITAL IMAGE PROCESSING
 Introduction
2  Visual image interpretation techniques have certain disadvantages and may
require extensive training and are labor intensive.

In this technique, the spectral characteristics are not always fully evaluated
because of the limited ability of the eye to discern tonal value and analyze
the spectral changes.

If the data are in digital mode, the remote sensing data can be analyzed
using digital image processing techniques and such a data base can be used
in Raster GIS.

In applications where spectral patterns are more informative, it is

preferable to analyze digital data rather than pictorial data.
3 Definition

 Digital Image Processing is the manipulation of the digital data with

the help of the computer hardware and software to produce digital

maps in which specific information has been extracted and

highlighted.
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The Origin of Digital image Processing

. The first application was in newspaper industry in 1920s

Different Stages in Digital Image Processing
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 Satellite remote sensing data in general and digital data in particular have
been used as basic inputs for the inventory and mapping of natural
resources of the earth surface like forestry, soils, geology and agriculture.

Space borne remote sensing data suffer from a variety of radiometric,

atmospheric and geometric errors, earth‟s rotation and so on.

These distortions would diminish the accuracy of the information

extracted and reduce the utility of the data. So these errors required to
be corrected.
In order to update and compile maps with high accuracy, the satellite digital
data have to be manipulated using image process techniques.
Digital image data is fed into the computer, and the computer is
programmed to insert these data into an equation or a series of equation,
and then store the results of the competition of each and every pixel.
These results are called look–up–table (LTU) values for a new image that
may be manipulated further to extract information of user‟s interest.
Virtually, all the procedure may be grouped into one or more of the
following broad types of the operations, namely,
1. pre – processing, and
2. Image Processing.
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Pre – processing
 Remotely sensed raw data generally contains flaws and deficiencies received
from imaging sensor mounted on the satellite. The correction of deficiencies
and removal of flaws present in the data through some methods are termed as
pre–processing methods this correction model involves to correct geometric
distortions, to calibrate the data radiometrically and to eliminate noise
present in the data. All the pre–processing methods are consider under three
heads, namely,
a) Radiometric correction method
b) Atmospheric correction method
c) Geometric correction methods
8 Radiometric correction method

 Radiometric errors are caused by detected imbalance and

atmospheric deficiencies. Radiometric corrections are
transformation on the data in order to remove error, which
are geometrically independent. Radiometric corrections are
also called as cosmetic corrections and are done to improve
the visual appearance of the image. Some of the radiometric
distortions are as follows:
1. Correction for missing lines
2. Correction for periodic line striping
3. Random noise correction
Correction for Missing Lines
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Figure 1.3a: Random noise correction

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Figure 1.3b: Random noise correction

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Figure 1.4: Correction for periodic line striping

13 Atmospheric correction method
 The value recorded at any pixel location on the remotely sensed image
is not a record of the true ground – leaving radiant at that point, for the
signal is attenuated due to absorption and scattering.

The atmosphere has effect on the measured brightness value of a pixel.

Other difficulties are caused by the variation in the illumination
geometry.

Atmospheric path radiance introduces haze in the imagery where by

decreasing the contrast of the data.
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Figure 1.5: Major Effects due to Atmosphere.

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Figure 1.6: Atmospheric correction

16 Geometric correction methods
 Remotely sensed images are not maps. Frequently information extracted
from remotely sensed images is integrated with the map data in
Geographical Information System (GIS). The transformation of the
remotely sensed image into a map with the scale and projection properties is
called geometric corrections. Geometric corrections of remotely sensed
image is required when the image is to be used in one of the following
circumstances:
I. To transform an image to match your map projection
II. To locate points of the interest on map and image.
III.To overlay temporal sequence of images of the same area, perhaps acquired
by different sensors.
IV.To integrate remotely sensed data with GIS.
 What is Geometric correction?
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Figure 1.7: Sample Geometric Distortions

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Figure 1.8: Geometric correction

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Figure 1.9: The flow of geometric

correction
21  Systematic Correction: when the geometric reference data or geometry
of sensor are given or measured, the geometric distortion can be
systematically avoided. Generally systematic correction is sufficient to
remove all errors.
 Non-systematic Correction: polynomials to transform from a geographic
coordinate system, or vice versa, will be determined with the given
coordinates of the ground control points using the least square method.
The accuracy depends on the order of the polynomials and the number and
distribution of ground control points.
 Combined method: Firstly systematic correction is applied, then the
residual errors are reduced using lower order polynomials. Usually the
goal of geometric correction is to obtain an error within plus or minus one
pixel of its true position.
 To correct sensor data with GIS internal and external errors must be
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determined and be either predictable or measureable.

Internal errors are due to sensor effects, being systematic or stationary.

External errors are due to platform perturbations and scene characteristics

which are invariable in nature and can be determined from ground control
and tracing data.

In order to remove the haze component due to these disturbances to simple

techniques are applied:

I. Histogram Minimum Method, and

II. Regression Method.
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Fig 1.10: It is an example of a contrast

stretch. Histogram A represents the pixel
values in image A. By stretching the values
(shown in histogram B) across the entire
range, you can alter and visually enhance
the appearance of the image (image B).
24 Image Processing:

 The second stage in Digital Image Processing entails five

different operations, namely,
A.Image Registration
B. Image Enhancement
C. Image Filtering
D.Image Transformation
E. Image Classification
All these are discussed in details below:
25 Image Registration
Image registration is the translation and alignment process by which two images/maps of
like geometrics and of the same set of objects are positioned co-incident with respect to
one another so that corresponding element of the same ground area appear in the same
place on the registered images.

This is often called image to image registration. One more important concept with respect
to geometry of satellite image is rectification. Rectification is the process by which the
geometry of an image area is made planimetric.

This process almost always involves relating Ground Control Point (GCP), pixel
coordinates with precise geometric correction since each pixel can be referenced not
only by the row or column in a digital image, but it is also rigorously referenced in
degree, feet or meters in a standard map projection whenever accurate data, direction and
distance measurements are acquired, geometric rectification is required.

This is often called as image to map rectification.

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Figure 1.11: Image Registration

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Figure 1.12: Image Registration

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Image Enhancement
 Low sensitivity of the detector, weak signal of the objects present on the
earth surface, similar reflectance of different objects and environmental
conditions at the time of recording are the major causes of low contrast of
the image. Another problem that complicates photographic display of
digital image is that the human eye is poor at discriminating the slight
spectral or radiometric differences that may characterize the feature.
 Image enhancement techniques improve the quality of an image as
perceived by human eye. There exist a wide variety of techniques for
improving image quality. contrast stretch, density slicing, edge
enhancement, and spatial filtering are the most commonly used
techniques.
 Image enhancement method are applied separately to each band of a
multispectral image.
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Figure 1.13: Contrast Enhancement by Histogram Stretch

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Figure 1.14: Density Slice for Surface Temperature

Visualization
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Figure 1.15: Edge Enhancement

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Figure 1.16: spatial filtering

 Image Filtering
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 A characteristic of remotely sensed images is a parameter called spatial
frequency, defined as number of Changes in brighter value per unit distance for
any particular part of an image. Few brighter changes in an image considered as
low frequency, conversely, the brighter value changes dramatically over short
distance, this is an area of high frequency.

 Spatial filtering is the process of dividing the image into its constituent spatial
frequency and selectively altering certain spatial features. This technique
increases the analyst‟s ability to discriminate details. The three types of spatial
filters used in remote sensor data processing are:
1. Low Pass Filters,
2. Band Pass Filters, and
3. High Pass Filters.
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Contrast-stretched Low Pass

Image Filter Image
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Original Image High Pass Filter Image

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Figure 1.17: In the example, we add some sinusoidal noise to an

image and filter it with Band Pass Filter
38 Image Transformation

 All the transformations in an image based on arithmetic

operations. The resulting images may will have properties
that make them more suited for a particular purpose than the
original.
 The transformation which is commonly used as follows:

Principal Component Analysis (PCA)

 Principal Component Analysis (PCA)
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 The application of Principal Component Analysis (PCA) on raw remotely

sensed data producing a new image which is more interpretable than the
original data. The main advantage of PCA is that it may be used to compress
the information content of a number of bands into just two or three
transformed principal component images.
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Figure 1.20: The application of Principal

Component Analysis (PCA) on raw remotely
sensed data of Urban Area by Unsupervised
Classification.
 Image Classification
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 Image Classification is a procedure to automatically categorise all pixel in an
image of a terrain into land use and land cover classes. This concept is dealt
under broad subject, namely, “pattern recognition”. Spectral pattern recognition
refers to the family of classification procedures that utilises this pixel-by-pixel
spectral information as the basis for automated land cover classification. Spatial
pattern recognition of image on the basis of the spatial relationship with pixel
surrounding.
 Image classification technique are grouped into two types, namely,
1. Supervised Classification , and
2. Unsupervised Classification.
45 Supervised Classification
 Different phases in supervised Classification technique are as
follows:
(i) Appropriate classification scheme for analysis is adopted.
(ii)Selection of representative training sites and collection of
spectral signatures.
(iii)Evaluation of statics for the training site spectral data.
(iv)The statics are analyzed to select the appropriate features to
be used in classification process.
(v)Appropriate classification algorithm is selected.
(vi)Then classify the image into „n‟ number of classes.
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Figure 1.21: Supervised Classification

 Unsupervised Classification
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The Unsupervised Classifiers do not utilize training data as basis for classification. These classifiers examine the
unknown pixel and aggregate them into a number of class based on natural grouping or clusters present in the image
values. The classes that result from unsupervised classification are spectral classes.

The analyst must compare the classified data into some form of reference data to identify the informational value of the
spectral classes.
 It has been found that in areas of complex terrain, the unsupervised approach is preferable. In such conditions, if the
supervised approach is used, the user will have difficulty in selecting training sites because of variability of spectral
response within them each class.
Consequently, group data collected but it is very time consuming. Also, the supervised approach is subjective in the sense
that the analyst tries to classify information categories, which are often composed of several spectral classes, whereas
spectrally distinguishable classes will be revealed by the unsupervised approach.
Additionally, the unsupervised approach has potential advantage of revealing discrimination classes unknown from the
previous supervised classification.
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Figure 1.22: In an unsupervised classification, a thematic map of the input image is created
automatically in ENVI without requiring any pre-existing knowledge of the input image. The
unsupervised classification method performs an automatic grouping; the next step in this
workflow is for the user to assign names to each of the automatically generated regions (for
49 References
 Campbell, J.B. and Wynne, R. H. (2010). Introduction to
Remote Sensing, The Guilford Press, New York. pp.
 Jayaraman, S., Esakkirajan, S. and Veerakumar, T. (2016).
Digital Image Processing, McGraw Hill Education (India)
pvt. Ltd., New Delhi. pp. 243-297
 Bhatta, B.(2015). Remote Sensing and GIS, Oxford
university press, New Delhi. pp. 196–223