Chapter 2

Digital Image Fundamentals

Those who wish to succeed must ask the

right preliminary questions.
Aristotle

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 Contents in Chapter 2
2.1 Elements of Human Visual Perception
2.2 Light and Electromagnetic Spectrum
2.3 Image Sensing and Acquisition
2.4 Image Sampling and Quantization
2.5 Some Basic Relationships Between Pixels
2.6 Linear and nonlinear operations

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2.1 Elements of Visual Perception
The importance of visual perception in DIP:
Although the foundation of digital image processing
is based on mathematical and probabilistic
formulations, human subjective visual judgments
plays a central role in the choice of one technique
over another.
We are interested in the mechanics and parameters
related to how images are formed in our eyes.

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2.1.1 Structure of the Human Eye
Figure 2.1 shows a
simplified diagram of a
cross section of the
human eye.
The eye is a sphere
with average diameter
20mm.

Fig. 2.1

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2.1.1 Structure of the Human Eye
Three membranes enclose the eye:
Layer1(outer cover):Cornea ( 角膜 ) and Sclera ( 鞏膜 )
Layer2 : Choroid ( 脈絡膜 )
Front: Ciliary body 睫狀體 控制眼球轉動及聚焦
Iris diaphragm 虹膜 Control the amount of incoming light
Pupil ( 瞳孔 ) :the central opening of Iris varied from 2-8mm

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2.1.1 Structure of the Human Eye
Lens ( 晶狀體 ) :
contains 60-70% of water, 6% fat and protein.
Cataract ( 白內障 ) may cause poor vision.
Absorb 8% of visible light and most infrared&
ultraviolet by protein. Excessive light may damage.
Layer3 : Retina ( 視網膜 )
Contains distribution of discrete two classes of light
receptors (1) Cones (2) Rods (See Fig. 2.2)

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2.1.1 Structure of the Human Eye
Cones: 6-7 million/eye (see Fig. 2.2 Distribution)
>Distribution centered at fovea
> Highly sensitive to color;
> can resolve fine details because has its own nerve.
> called photopic or bright light vision.
Rods: 75-150 millions/eye,
> Lower resolution because several rods share a
nerve.
> Gives a general overall picture of a view.
> not involved in color, but sensitive to lower level
of light. Called scotopic or dim-light vision.
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2.1.2 Image Formation in the Eye
Figure 2.3
人眼的 lens ，厚薄曲度可由眼肌 ( 睫毛體 ) 之鬆緊控制以便調
整焦距 (focal length).
 看遠物： lens 較平坦 ( 鬆 ) (Max. focal length ~17mm)

 看近物： lens 較厚曲 ( 緊 ) (min. Focal length ~14mm)

The outside object has an image on Retina as

shown in Fig. 2.3.
The Process of “seeing”:
電化學
光 Receptor 電波 神經 大腦
(Cones/Rods)
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 2.1.3. Brightness and Adaptation and
Discrimination (Fig. 2.4)
Light intensity I ( 光之強度 Milli-lambert mL, 客觀 )
and subjective Brightness B ( 人眼感受之亮度 , 主觀 )
 大約 B  K  log( I ), I  [106 ~ 104 ]
How to achieve the perception of long range of
intensities? Brightness adaptation!!
 人類視覺無法同時感受 10-6~104 的光強度
 例：白天進電影院
 BaBb ： Perceived brightness at level BaBb 以下則
一片黑
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JND(Just Noticeable Difference)

I ΔI ：閃動的微量

I+ΔI

ΔIc ： The difference that a subject can notice 50% of the time.
例：觀測四次，辨識出兩次 (Brightness Discern)
Weber Ratio
I c
 若 Ratio 小：在光強度 I 時，亮度分辨力強
I
 若 Ratio 大：在光強度 I 時，亮度分辨力弱

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JND(Just Noticeable Difference)
一般人 Brightness discern 之能力
如何解讀？

Rods

Cones

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 實驗： JND
觀測自己的 JND 曲線 (Use MATLAB GUI)
考慮參數
 周圍亮度
 觀察距離遠近
每隔 10 個 gray level 觀測一個 JND 值

ΔIc

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0 255
 (Figure 2.7a)
Perceived Brightness is not a
simple function of Intensity!!

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 (Figure 2.8) Example of
Simultaneous Contrast

Fig. 2.9
Some Well-know Optical Illusions
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 Fig. 2.9 Some well-know
Optical Illusions
觀測自己的 JND 曲線 (Use MATLAB GUI)
考慮參數
 周圍亮度
 觀察距離遠近
每隔 10 個 gray level 觀測一個 JND 值

ΔIc

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0 255
 2.2 More on Light and
EM Spectrum
Fig. 2.10 EM spectrum
Wavelength= (light speed)/(frequency HZ)
where light speed is a constant (2.998x10^8m/s)
The energy of a photon
E=(Planck’s constant)x(its frequency) (in Electron volts)

Visible light: EM of wavelength(0.43~0.79)x10^ -6 m

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 2.2 More on Light and
EM Spectrum (color)
Color: Perceived color of an object is determined
by the light reflected from the surface of the object.

For Example: An object perceived as white color

(void of color or monochromatic) because it
reflects relatively balanced in all visible
wavelengths.

An object perceived as green, because ……

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 2.2 More on Light and
EM Spectrum (color)
Mono-Chrome light has only one attribute:
intensity. (described in gray level)
Dark  Gray  White
Chromatic light has three attributes:
(1) Radiance (Watt): Energy flows from light source
(2) Luminance (Lumens): Energy perceived by an observer.
(Ingrared has high W but very low Lm)
(3) Brightness: Subjective description of light perception
which is impossible to measure.

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 2.2 More on Light and
EM Spectrum
Applications of Non-visible light (see page
45, 2nd paragraph)

Wavelength of EM wave required to see an

object must be the same size or smaller
than the object.
 A limitation of image sensors.

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2.3 Image Sensing and Acquisition
“Illumination” On “Scene”, and detect
the energy reflected from or passing through
the scene.
Possible Illuminations: Visible Light, EM,
sound, or even computer generated
illumination pattern etc.

Possible Scenes: molecules, burried rock

formations, human brain etc.

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2.3 Image Sensing and Acquisition
Sensor: To convert detected energy to
electrical voltage signal.

Fig 2.12a Single Image Sensor (2.3.1)

Fig 2.12b Line sensor (2.3.2)
Fig 2.12c Array sensor. (2.3.3)

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2.3.4 A Simple Image model
Image ： 2D light-intensity function
 f(x,y), 0<f(x,y)<∞
0  i ( x, y )  
Light f ( x, y )  i ( x, y ) r ( x, y ) 
 0  r ( x, y )  1
 入射光： illumination
 i(x,y) ：在 (x,y) 之入射光強度
 r(x,y) ：在 (x,y) 之反射率

 反射率： reflectance


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 2.3.4 A Simple Image model

i(x,y) r(x,y)

大晴天 9000 foot-candle 黑絲絨 0.01 foot-candle

陰天 1000 foot-candle 不銹剛 0.65 foot-candle

全月 0.01 foot-candle 平白牆 0.8 foot-candle

辦公室 100 foot-candle 白雪 0.93 foot-candle

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 2.3.4 A Simple Image model
Gray level(l)
 The intensity of a monochrome image of
f(x,y)
 Lmin < l <Lmax

imin‧rmin≒ 10 (office) imax‧rmax≒ 1000 (office)

Gray Scale
 Shift the interval [Lmin, Lmax] → [0, L-1]
 0 – dark, L-1: White, Gray: In between
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 2.4 Sampling and Quantization
An Image f(x,y)
Sampling: Digitization of 2 spatial coordinates
Quantization: Digitization of the amplitude.
空間取樣與 亮度量化
Fig. 2.16 Generating a digital image
(a) Continuous image
(b) A Scan line from A to B in (a)
(c) Sampling
(d) Quantization.
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2.4.2 Representation of Digital Images
 Fig. 2.18 shows the Coordinate convention used in this
book.
 An digital image can be viewed as a matrix.

 f (0,0) f (0,1)  f (0, N  1) 


f ( x, y )       

 f ( N  1,0)   f ( N  1, M  1)
 N,M,L are Positive integer L is power of 2.
 Dynamic range [0,L-1]

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2.3.1 Uniform Sampling and quantization

Each element of the Digital Image

 Image Element or
 Picture Element or
 Pixel or
 Pel or

用語
 Image ： digital image
 Pixel ： basic element in a digital Image

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 2.4.2 Representation of Digital Images
How many number of bits are required to
store for a digital image?

M
f ( x, y )  [ Lmin , Lmax ]  [0, L](  [0,255])

* Common practice in D.I.P.

N
L+1=2m , # of gray levels

* Integer power of 2 is easier to handle in D.I.P.

Ans: 共需 b=(NxM)xm bits/Image 28

2.4.2 Storage Required to store an
Digital Image
Example
 N=128=M, with 64 gray level [0,63]

 M=log264=6 bits

 b=(N x M) x m = (128 x 128) x 6 bits

= 98304 bits
≒ 12288 bytes
 其他 m,n 直參考 Table 2.1 Page 56

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2.4.3 Spatial an Gray Level Resolution

Spatial Resolution: The smallest

number of discernible pixel pairs per
unit distance.
Example: 100 pixel pairs per millimeter.
Gray-Level Resolution: 8 bits (mostly),
10, 12, 16 bits.
Commonly we refer to an L-level image
of size MxN.(see Fig. 2.19)
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 2.4.3 Spatial and Gray-level
Resolution (Figure 2.19a)

Fig 2.19 A 1024x1024 (MxN), 8 bit

(L=256) image sub-sampled down to
size 32x32 pixels.

@ Also see Fig. 2.20 for effects of low resolution.31

Typical Effects of varying the number
of gray levels in a digital image
See Figure 2.21a-h. 452x
374 CAT projection image.
A rough rules of thumb:
An image of 256x256 and
64 gray levels are about
the smallest images that is
free of objectionable
sampling checkerboards
and false contour.
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 N and m for three types of contents

Fig.2.22 (a) Image with a low level of details

(b) With medium level of details
(c ) Image with relatively large amount of details.
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 N and m for three types of contents
Low spatial frequency component
Low in N and high in m

High spatial frequency component

 High in N and low in m.

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 2.4.5 Zooming and Shrinking
Digital Images
Two steps in Zooming ( 放大 ):
Fro example: 500x500 750x750
Step1: Laying 750x750 grids over the 500x500 image
Step2: Assigning each of the 750x750 pixels value by
nearest neighbor interpolation (NNI)
Pixel replication is a special NNI for enlarging the
image by any integer number of times
 may cause checkerboard effects (Fig20e-f)
A more sophisticated interpolation is Bilinear
Interpolation (see Fig. 2.25) 35
 2.4.5 Zooming and Shrinking
Digital Images
Shrinking ( 縮小 ) (same process as zooming):
Fro example: 500x500 350x350
Step1: Laying 350x350 grids over the 500x500 image
Step2: Assigning each of the 350x350 pixels value by
nearest neighbor interpolation (NNI)
Pixel deletion is a special NNI for shrinking the
image by any integer number of times
 Smoothing before deletion to avoid aliasing.
Using more neighbors for interpolation are important in 3D
interpolation. more computations.
Bilinear Interpolation is usually the best choice.
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 2.5 Some basic Relationships
Between Pixels
2.5.1 Neighbors of a pixel P at location (x,y)
The 4 neighbors of pixel P (denoted as N4 (P)):
are pixels at (x-1,y), (x+1,y), (x, y-1), (x,y+1).
The 4 diagonal neighbors of pixel P (ND (P))
are pixels at (x-1,y-1),(x-1,y+1), (x+1, y-1),
(x+1,y+1).

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