Digital Image Processing

Chapter 2:
Digital Image Fundamental

6 June 2007
What is Digital Image Processing ?
Processing of a multidimensional pictures by a digital computer

Why we need Digital Image Processing ?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Digital Image
Digital image = a multidimensional
array of numbers (such as intensity image)
or vectors (such as color image)
Each component in the image
called pixel associates with
the pixel value (a single number in
the case of intensity images or a
vector in the case of color images).
(
(
(
(
(
(

39 87 15 32
22 13 25 15
37 26 6 9
28 16 10 10
(
(
(
(
(
(

39 65 65 54
42 47 54 21
67 96 54 32
43 56 70 65
(
(
(
(
(
(

99 87 65 32
92 43 85 85
67 96 90 60
78 56 70 99
Visual Perception: Human Eye
(Picture from Microsoft Encarta 2000)
Cross Section of the Human Eye
(Images from Rafael C. Gonzalez and Richard E.
Wood, Digital Image Processing, 2
nd
Edition.
1. The lens contains 60-70% water, 6% of fat.

2. The iris diaphragm controls amount of light that enters the eye.
3. Light receptors in the retina
- About 6-7 millions cones for bright light vision called photopic
- Density of cones is about 150,000 elements/mm
2
.
- Cones involve in color vision.
- Cones are concentrated in fovea about 1.5x1.5 mm
2
.
- About 75-150 millions rods for dim light vision called scotopic
- Rods are sensitive to low level of light and are not involved
color vision.

4. Blind spot is the region of emergence of the optic nerve from the eye.
Visual Perception: Human Eye (cont.)
Range of Relative Brightness Sensation
Simutaneous range is smaller than
Total adaptation range
(Images from Rafael C. Gonzalez and Richard E.
Wood, Digital Image Processing, 2
nd
Edition.
Distribution of Rods and Cones in the Retina
(Images from Rafael C. Gonzalez and Richard E.
Wood, Digital Image Processing, 2
nd
Edition.
Image Formation in the Human Eye
(Picture from Microsoft Encarta 2000)
(Images from Rafael C. Gonzalez and Richard E.
Wood, Digital Image Processing, 2
nd
Edition.
Position
I
n
t
e
n
s
i
t
y

Brightness Adaptation of Human Eye : Mach Band Effect
Mach Band Effect
Intensities of surrounding points
effect perceived brightness at each
point.

In this image, edges between bars
appear brighter on the right side
and darker on the left side.
(Images from Rafael C. Gonzalez and Richard E.
Wood, Digital Image Processing, 2
nd
Edition.
In area A, brightness perceived is darker while in area B is
brighter. This phenomenon is called Mach Band Effect.
Position
I
n
t
e
n
s
i
t
y

A
B
Mach Band Effect (Cont)
Simultaneous contrast. All small squares have exactly the same intensity
but they appear progressively darker as background becomes lighter.
Brightness Adaptation of Human Eye : Simultaneous Contrast
Simultaneous Contrast
(Images from Rafael C. Gonzalez and Richard E.
Wood, Digital Image Processing, 2
nd
Edition.
Optical illusion
(Images from Rafael C. Gonzalez and Richard E.
Wood, Digital Image Processing, 2
nd
Edition.
Visible Spectrum
(Images from Rafael C. Gonzalez and Richard E.
Wood, Digital Image Processing, 2
nd
Edition.
Image Sensors
Single sensor
Line sensor
Array sensor
(Images from Rafael C. Gonzalez and Richard E.
Wood, Digital Image Processing, 2
nd
Edition.
Image Sensors : Single Sensor
(Images from Rafael C. Gonzalez and Richard E.
Wood, Digital Image Processing, 2
nd
Edition.
Image Sensors : Line Sensor
Fingerprint sweep sensor
Computerized Axial Tomography
(Images from Rafael C. Gonzalez and Richard E.
Wood, Digital Image Processing, 2
nd
Edition.
CCD KAF-3200E from Kodak.
(2184 x 1472 pixels,
Pixel size 6.8 microns
2
)
Charge-Coupled Device (CCD)
w Used for convert a continuous
image into a digital image

w Contains an array of light sensors

w Converts photon into electric charges
accumulated in each sensor unit
Image Sensors : Array Sensor
Horizontal Transportation Register
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Photosites
Output
Image Sensor: Inside Charge-Coupled Device
Image Sensor: How CCD works
a b c
g h i
d e f
a b c
g h i
d e f
a b c
g h i
d e f
Vertical shift
Horizontal shift
Image pixel
Horizontal transport
register
Output
Image After snow storm
Fundamentals of Digital Images
f(x,y)
x
y
w An image: a multidimensional function of spatial coordinates.
w Spatial coordinate: (x,y) for 2D case such as photograph,
(x,y,z) for 3D case such as CT scan images
(x,y,t) for movies
w The function f may represent intensity (for monochrome images)
or color (for color images) or other associated values.
Origin
Digital Images
Digital image: an image that has been discretized both in
Spatial coordinates and associated value.

w Consist of 2 sets:(1) a point set and (2) a value set

w Can be represented in the form
I = {(x,a(x)): x eX, a(x) e F}
where X and F are a point set and value set, respectively.

w An element of the image, (x,a(x)) is called a pixel where
- x is called the pixel location and
- a(x) is the pixel value at the location x
Conventional Coordinate for Image Representation
(Images from Rafael C. Gonzalez and Richard E.
Wood, Digital Image Processing, 2
nd
Edition.
Digital Image Types : Intensity Image
Intensity image or monochrome image
each pixel corresponds to light intensity
normally represented in gray scale (gray
level).
(
(
(
(
(
(

39 87 15 32
22 13 25 15
37 26 6 9
28 16 10 10
Gray scale values
(
(
(
(
(
(

39 87 15 32
22 13 25 15
37 26 6 9
28 16 10 10
(
(
(
(
(
(

39 65 65 54
42 47 54 21
67 96 54 32
43 56 70 65
(
(
(
(
(
(

99 87 65 32
92 43 85 85
67 96 90 60
78 56 70 99
Digital Image Types : RGB Image
Color image or RGB image:
each pixel contains a vector
representing red, green and
blue components.
RGB components
Image Types : Binary Image
Binary image or black and white image
Each pixel contains one bit :
1 represent white
0 represents black
(
(
(
(
(
(

1 1 1 1
1 1 1 1
0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0
Binary data
Image Types : Index Image
Index image
Each pixel contains index number
pointing to a color in a color table
(
(
(
(
(

2 5 6
7 4 6
9 4 1
Index value
Index
No.
Red
component
Green
component
Blue
component
1 0.1 0.5 0.3
2 1.0 0.0 0.0
3 0.0 1.0 0.0
4 0.5 0.5 0.5
5 0.2 0.8 0.9

Color Table
Digital Image Acquisition Process
(Images from Rafael C. Gonzalez and Richard E.
Wood, Digital Image Processing, 2
nd
Edition.
Generating a Digital Image
(Images from Rafael C. Gonzalez and Richard E.
Wood, Digital Image Processing, 2
nd
Edition.
Image Sampling and Quantization
Image sampling: discretize an image in the spatial domain
Spatial resolution / image resolution: pixel size or number of pixels
(Images from Rafael C. Gonzalez and Richard E.
Wood, Digital Image Processing, 2
nd
Edition.
How to choose the spatial resolution
= Sampling locations
O
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i
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e

S
a
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Under sampling, we lost some image details!
Spatial resolution
How to choose the spatial resolution : Nyquist Rate
O
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a
l

i
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e

= Sampling locations
Minimum
Period
Spatial resolution
(sampling rate)
Sampled image
No detail is lost!
Nyquist Rate:
Spatial resolution must be less or equal
half of the minimum period of the image
or sampling frequency must be greater or
Equal twice of the maximum frequency.
2mm
1
m
m

0 0.5 1 1.5 2
-1
-0.5
0
0.5
1
0 0.5 1 1.5 2
-1
-0.5
0
0.5
1
1 ), 2 sin( ) (
1
= = f t t x t
6 ), 12 sin( ) (
2
= = f t t x t
Sampling rate:
5 samples/sec
Aliased Frequency
Two different frequencies but the same results !
Effect of Spatial Resolution
256x256 pixels
64x64 pixels
128x128 pixels
32x32 pixels
Effect of Spatial Resolution
(Images from Rafael C. Gonzalez and Richard E.
Wood, Digital Image Processing, 2
nd
Edition.
Moire Pattern Effect : Special Case of Sampling
Moire patterns occur when frequencies of two superimposed
periodic patterns are close to each other.
(Images from Rafael C. Gonzalez and Richard E.
Wood, Digital Image Processing, 2
nd
Edition.
Effect of Spatial Resolution
(Images from Rafael C. Gonzalez and Richard E.
Wood, Digital Image Processing, 2
nd
Edition.
Can we increase spatial resolution by interpolation ?
Down sampling is an irreversible process.
(Images from Rafael C. Gonzalez and Richard E.
Wood, Digital Image Processing, 2
nd
Edition.
Image Quantization
Image quantization:
discretize continuous pixel values into discrete numbers

Color resolution/ color depth/ levels:
- No. of colors or gray levels or
- No. of bits representing each pixel value
- No. of colors or gray levels N
c
is given by
b
c
N 2 =
where b = no. of bits
Quantization function
Light intensity
Q
u
a
n
t
i
z
a
t
i
o
n

l
e
v
e
l

0
1
2
N
c
-1
N
c
-2
Darkest Brightest
Effect of Quantization Levels
256 levels
128 levels
32 levels 64 levels
Effect of Quantization Levels (cont.)
16 levels
8 levels
2 levels 4 levels
In this image,
it is easy to see
false contour.
How to select the suitable size and pixel depth of images
Low detail image Medium detail image High detail image
Lena image Cameraman image
To satisfy human mind
1. For images of the same size, the low detail image may need more pixel depth.
2. As an image size increase, fewer gray levels may be needed.
The word suitable is subjective: depending on subject.
(Images from Rafael C. Gonzalez and Richard E.
Wood, Digital Image Processing, 2
nd
Edition.
Human vision: Spatial Frequency vs Contrast
Human vision: Distinguish ability for Difference in brightness
Regions with 5% brightness difference
Basic Relationship of Pixels
x
y
(0,0)
Conventional indexing method
(x,y) (x+1,y) (x-1,y)
(x,y-1)
(x,y+1)
(x+1,y-1) (x-1,y-1)
(x-1,y+1) (x+1,y+1)
Neighbors of a Pixel
p (x+1,y) (x-1,y)
(x,y-1)
(x,y+1)
4-neighbors of p:
N
4
(p) =
(x1,y)
(x+1,y)
(x,y1)
(x,y+1)
Neighborhood relation is used to tell adjacent pixels. It is
useful for analyzing regions.
Note: q e N
4
(p) implies p e N
4
(q)
4-neighborhood relation considers only vertical and
horizontal neighbors.
p (x+1,y) (x-1,y)
(x,y-1)
(x,y+1)
(x+1,y-1) (x-1,y-1)
(x-1,y+1) (x+1,y+1)
Neighbors of a Pixel (cont.)
8-neighbors of p:
(x1,y1)
(x,y1)
(x+1,y1)
(x1,y)
(x+1,y)
(x1,y+1)
(x,y+1)
(x+1,y+1)
N
8
(p) =
8-neighborhood relation considers all neighbor pixels.
p
(x+1,y-1) (x-1,y-1)
(x-1,y+1) (x+1,y+1)
Diagonal neighbors of p:
N
D
(p) =
(x1,y1)
(x+1,y1)
(x1,y+1)
(x+1,y+1)
Neighbors of a Pixel (cont.)
Diagonal -neighborhood relation considers only diagonal
neighbor pixels.
Connectivity
Connectivity is adapted from neighborhood relation.
Two pixels are connected if they are in the same class (i.e. the
same color or the same range of intensity) and they are
neighbors of one another.

For p and q from the same class
w 4-connectivity: p and q are 4-connected if q e N
4
(p)

w 8-connectivity: p and q are 8-connected if q e N
8
(p)

w mixed-connectivity (m-connectivity):
p and q are m-connected if q e N
4
(p) or
q e N
D
(p) and N
4
(p) N
4
(q) = C

Adjacency
A pixel p is adjacent to pixel q is they are connected.
Two image subsets S
1
and S
2
are adjacent if some pixel
in S
1
is adjacent to some pixel in S
2
S
1
S
2
We can define type of adjacency: 4-adjacency, 8-adjacency
or m-adjacency depending on type of connectivity.
Path
A path from pixel p at (x,y) to pixel q at (s,t) is a sequence
of distinct pixels:
(x
0
,y
0
), (x
1
,y
1
), (x
2
,y
2
),, (x
n
,y
n
)
such that
(x
0
,y
0
) = (x,y) and (x
n
,y
n
) = (s,t)
and
(x
i
,y
i
) is adjacent to (x
i-1
,y
i-1
), i = 1,,n
p
q
We can define type of path: 4-path, 8-path or m-path
depending on type of adjacency.
Path (cont.)
p
q
p
q
p
q
8-path from p to q
results in some ambiguity
m-path from p to q
solves this ambiguity
8-path m-path
Distance
For pixel p, q, and z with coordinates (x,y), (s,t) and (u,v),
D is a distance function or metric if

w D(p,q) > 0 (D(p,q) = 0 if and only if p = q)

w D(p,q) = D(q,p)

w D(p,z) s D(p,q) + D(q,z)
Example: Euclidean distance
2 2
) ( ) ( ) , ( t y s x q p D
e
+ =
Distance (cont.)
D
4
-distance (city-block distance) is defined as
t y s x q p D + = ) , (
4
1 2
1 0
1 2
1
2
2
2
2
2
2
Pixels with D
4
(p) = 1 is 4-neighbors of p.
Distance (cont.)
D
8
-distance (chessboard distance) is defined as
) , max( ) , (
8
t y s x q p D =
1
2
1 0
1
2
1
2
2
2
2
2
2
Pixels with D
8
(p) = 1 is 8-neighbors of p.
2 2
2
2
2
2 2 2
1
1
1
1