Image Acquisition

Images are typically generated by

illuminating a scene and absorbing
the energy reflected by the objects in
that scene
Incoming energy lands on a sensor
material responsive to that type of
energy and this generates a voltage
Collections of sensors are arranged to
capture images
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Image Sensors

Incoming energy lands on a sensor

material responsive to that type of
energy and this generates a voltage
Collections of sensors are arranged to
capture images
Example of a sensor is a photodiode

Image acquisition using a single

sensor

Image Acquisition Using Sensor Strips

Image acquisition using sensor

arrays

A Simple Image Formation Model:

Image is a two-dimensional functions of the form f(x, y).
The value or amplitude of f at spatial coordinates (x, y) is
a positive scalar quantity whose physical meaning is
determined by the source of the image.
When an image is generated from a physical process, its
values are proportional to energy radiated by a physical
source
As a consequence, f(x, y) must be nonzero and finite;
0 < f(x, y) <
The function f(x, y) may be characterized by two
components:
1. The amount of source illumination incident on the scene
being viewed - called the illumination denoted by i(x, y)
2. The amount of illumination reflected by the objects in the
scene- reflectance components and are denoted by r(x, y),
The two functions combine as a product to form f(x, y):

 f(x, y)=i(x, y) r(x, y)

where
0 < i(x, y) < and 0 < r(x,
y) < 1
Reflectance is bounded by 0 (total
absorption) and 1 (total reflectance).
The nature of i(x, y) is determined by
the illumination source, and r(x, y) is
determined by the characteristics of
the imaged objects.
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Image Sampling and Quantization

D/A conversion involves two processes: sampling and
quantization.
Basic Concepts in Sampling and Quantization
Figure 2.16(a) shows a continuous image, f(x, y), that
we want to convert to digital form.
f(x, y) 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 quantization.
The one-dimensional function shown in Fig. 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).
The random variations are due to image noise
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 To sample this function, we take equally spaced samples

along line AB, as shown in Fig. 2.16(c).
The location of each sample is given by a vertical tick mark
in the bottom part of the figure.
The samples are shown as small white squares
superimposed on the function.
The set of these discrete locations gives the sampled
function.
However, the values of the samples still span (vertically) a
continuous range of gray-level values.
In order to form a digital function, the gray-level values also
must be converted (quantized) into discrete quantities.
The right side of Fig. 2.16(c) shows the gray-level scale
divided into eight discrete levels, ranging from black to
white.
The vertical tick marks indicate the specific value assigned
to each of the eight gray levels.
The continuous gray levels are quantized simply by
assigning one of the eight discrete gray levels to each
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sample.

 Starting at the top of the image and carrying out this

procedure line by line produces a two-dimensional digital
image.
Quantization of the sensor outputs completes the process
of generating a digital image
Representing Digital Images
The result of sampling and quantization is a matrix of real
numbers.
Assume that an image f(x, y) is sampled so that the
resulting digital image has M rows and N columns.
The values of the coordinates at the origin are (x, y)=(0, 0).
The next coordinate values along the first row of the image
are represented as
(x, y)=(0, 1).
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 when the image was
sampled.
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 the complete MXN digital image can

be in written in compact matrix
form:

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 The right side of this equation is by definition a

digital image.
Each element of this matrix array is called an
image element, picture element, pixel, or pel.
image can be represented in a more traditional
form as,

Clearly, a ij = f(x=i, y=j)=f(i, j)

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 Digitization process requires decisions about values for

M, N, and L
(L - the number of discrete gray levels allowed for
each pixel).
There are no requirements on M and N, other than that
they have to be positive integers.
However, due to processing, storage, and sampling
hardware considerations, the number of gray levels
typically is an integer power of 2
L = 2k.
We assume that the discrete levels are equally spaced
and that they are integers in the interval [0, L-1].
Sometimes the range of values spanned by the gray
scale is called the dynamic range of an image
we refer to images whose gray levels span a
significant portion of the gray scale as having a high
dynamic range
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 Dynamic range establishes the lowest

and highest intensity levels that a s/m
can represent
Image contrast is defined as the
difference in intensity b/w the highest
and lowest intensity levels in an image
When an appreciable number of pixels
in an image have high dynamic range,
the image will have high contrast.
Conversely, an image with low
dynamic range tends to have a dull,
washed out gray look
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 The number, b, of bits required to store a

digitized image is
b=M X N X k.
When M=N, this equation becomes
b = N 2k
When an image can have 2k gray levels, it is
common practice to refer to the image as a
k-bit image.
For example, an image with 256 possible
gray-level values is called an 8-bit image.
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Spatial and Gray-Level Resolution:

Sampling is the principal factor determining the
spatial resolution of an image
spatial resolution is a measure of the smallest
discernible detail in an image.
Suppose that we construct a chart with vertical
lines of width W, with the space between the lines
is also W.
A line pair consists of one such line and its
adjacent space.
Thus, the width of a line pair is 2W, and there are
1/2W line pairs per unit distance.
A widely used definition of resolution is simply the
smallest number of discernible line pairs per unit
distance
(for example, 100 line pairs per millimeter)
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 intensity resolution similarly refers to

the smallest discernible change in
intensity level
Due to hardware considerations, the
number of gray levels is usually an
integer power of 2.
The most common number is 8 bits,
with 16 bits being used in some
applications
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