CSE 511:Digital Image Processing

Lecture 2
Image formation
◼ There are two parts to the image formation
process:

◼ The geometry of image formation, which

determines where in the image plane the
projection of a point in the scene will be located.

◼ The physics of light, which determines the

brightness of a point in the image plane as a
function of illumination and surface properties.

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 A Simple model of image formation

◼ The scene is illuminated by a single source.

◼ The scene reflects radiation towards the camera.
◼ The camera senses it via chemicals on film.

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 Pinhole Camera
◼ This is the simplest device to form an image of a 3D scene
on a 2D surface.
◼ Straight rays of light pass through a “pinhole” and form an
inverted image of the object on the image plane.

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 CCD (Charged-Coupled Device) cameras
◼ Tiny solid state cells convert light energy into electrical
charge.
◼ The image plane acts as a digital memory that can be
read row by row by a computer.

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 Frame Grabber
◼ Usually, a CCD camera plugs into a computer board
(frame grabber).
◼ The frame grabber digitizes the signal and stores it in its
memory (frame buffer).

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Image Representation
◼ An image is a function of space
◼ Typically, a 2-D projection of the 3-D space is used,
but the image can exist in the 3-D space directly

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Image Representation
◼ Image as a single-valued function, for quantifying the
intensity.
◼ Image can be multi-valued function. The multiple
values may correspond to different color intensities,
for example, R, G, B makes color image.

◼ Notice that we defined images as functions in a

continuous domain.
◼ Images are representations of an analog
world. Hence, as with all digital signal
processing, we need to digitize our images

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Image Digitization

◼ Digitization of an analog signal involves two operations:

◼ Sampling
◼ Quantization
◼ Both operations correspond to a discretization of a quantity, but
in different domains.
 Sampling
◼ An image may be continuous with respect to the
x- and y-coordinates and also in amplitude.

◼ Sampling corresponds to a discretization of the space.

That is, of the domain of the function.

◼ Digitizing the coordinate values is called Sampling.

◼ Digitizing the amplitude values is called Quantization.

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Sampling (Cont’d)

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Sampling (Cont’d)
◼ Image can be seen as a matrix
 f(0,0) f(0,1) ... f(0, N − 1) 
 f(1,0) f(1,1) ... f(1, N − 1) 
 
 . . . . 
 . . . . 
 
 . . . . 
f(M − 1,0) f(M − 1,1) ... f(M − 1, N − 1)
◼ The smallest element resulting from the
discretization of the space is called a pixel
(picture element).

◼ For 3-D images, this element is called a voxel

(volumetric pixel)

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Image quantization (example)

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Summary: Sampling and Quantization

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Sampling and Quantization

pixel grid

real image sampled quantized sampled &

quantized

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 Digital Image
Color images have 3 values per
pixel; monochrome images have 1
value per pixel.

a grid of squares,
each of which
contains a single
color

each square is
called a pixel (for
picture element)

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Pixels

◼ A digital image, I, is a mapping from a 2D grid

of uniformly spaced discrete points, {p = (r,c)},
into a set of positive integer values, {I( p)}, or a
set of vector values, e.g., {[R G B]T( p)}.

◼ At each column location in each row of I there

is a value.

◼ The pair ( p, I( p) ) is called a “pixel” (for

picture element).

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Pixels

◼ p = (r,c) is the pixel location indexed by row, r,

and column, c.

◼ I( p) = I(r,c) is the value of the pixel at location p.

◼ If I( p) is a single number then I is monochrome.

◼ If I( p) is a vector (ordered list of numbers) then I

has multiple bands (e.g., a color image).

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 Pixels

Pixel Location: p = (r , c)
Pixel Value: I(p) = I(r , c) Pixel : [ p, I(p)]

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A Simple Image Formation Model
◼ An image is a 2-D light intensity function f(x,y)
◼ +ve scalar quantity in spatial domain
◼ Physical meaning is determined by the source of the image

◼ An image is formed through the mapping of 3D scene

onto 2D surface or plane.

◼ The light intensity distribution f(x,y), over that plane

characterizes the image and is considered to be
dependent on 2 distributions- illumination and
reflectance.
◼ The image is modeled as Illumination-Reflectance
model

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The Illumination- Reflectance Model
◼ Illumination- i(x,y): The amount of source
illumination incident on the scene being viewed or
amount of illumination received by the various
objects
◼ Typical values: 9000 foot-candles sunny day, 100 office
room, 0.01 moonlight

◼ Reflectivity- r(x,y): Amount of illumination reflected

by the objects in the scene
◼ r(x,y) is the reflectance: 0 < r(x,y) < 1
◼ r(x,y)=0 implies total absorption
◼ r(x,y)=1 implies total reflectance
◼ Typical values: 0.01 black velvet, 0.80 flat white paint, 0.93
snow

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 The Illumination- Reflectance Model
◼ f(x,y) and i(x,y) are +ve for all values of x and y, i.e.,
◼ 0 ≤f(x,y)< ∞
◼ 0 ≤i(x,y)< ∞

f(x, y)
◼ By definition: r(x, y) =
i(x, y)
f(x, y) = r(x, y)i(x, y)

◼ r(x,y) characterizes the various objects in the scene

and can be expressed as the product of 2 components

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Simple Imaging Model
◼ The intensity of a monochrome image f at (x,y) is the gray level
(l) of the image at that point.
Lmin≤ l ≤ Lmax

◼ In practice Lmin=iminrmin and Lmax=imaxrmax

◼ As a guideline Lmin ≈ 10 and Lmax ≈ 1000 for indoor image
processing applications

◼ The interval [Lmin, Lmax] is called the gray scale

◼ Common practice is to shift the interval to [0, L-1] where l=0 is

considered black and l=L-1 is considered white. All intermediate
values are shades of gray

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Sampling and Quantization

pixel grid

real image sampled quantized sampled &

quantized

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Sampling and Quantization

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Sampling and Quantization

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Representing Digital Image

◼ Result of sampling and quantization

◼ Matrix of real numbers
◼ M x N digital image
 f(0,0) f(0,1) ... f(0, N − 1) 
 
 f(1,0) f(1,1) ... f(1, N − 1) 
 . . . . 
 . . . . 
 
 . . . . 
f(M − 1,0) f(M − 1,1) ... f(M − 1, N − 1)

◼ What’s the size of M and N and L- gray levels?

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 Representing Digital Images
◼ No requirements of M and N other than to be +ve integers
◼ Due to processing, storage and sampling hardware considerations,
the number of gray levels L is typically power of 2
◼ L=2k
◼ [0,L-1] – dynamic range of an image
◼ Image whose gray levels span a significant portion of the gray
scale- high dynamic range- high contrast
◼ Low dynamic range- dull washed out gray look

◼ The number of bits, b, necessary to store the image is then

◼ b=M x N x k, when M=N it becomes b=N2k

◼ For example, a 128x128 image with 64 gray levels would require

98,304 bits of storage: b=128x128x6

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Storage Bits Requirements

◼ How many samples and gray levels are required for a “good”
approximation?

◼ The resolution (the degree of discernible detail) depends strongly on

these two parameters

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Image Resolution
◼ Digital image implies the discretization of both spatial
and intensity values. The notion of resolution is valid
in either domain.

◼ Most often it refers to the resolution in sampling-

Spatial resolution.

◼ It also can refer to the number of quantization levels.

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Resolution: How Much Is Enough?

◼The big question with resolution is always how much is

enough?
◼ This all depends on what is in the image and what you
would like to do with it
◼ Key questions include
◼ Does the image look aesthetically pleasing?
◼ Can you see what you need to see within the image?

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Resolution: How Much Is Enough?(cont…)

◼The picture on the right is fine for counting the

number of cars, but not for reading the number
plate

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 Spatial Resolution
◼ Sampling is the principal factor determining the
Spatial Resolution of an image
◼ Smallest discernible detail in an image

◼ Example:
◼ Construct a chart with vertical lines of width W, with the
space between lines also having width W
◼ One line and its adjacent space- Line pair, width 2W,
therefore 1/2W line pairs per unit distance

◼ Resolution: Smallest number of discernible line pairs

per unit distance. Usually 100 line pairs per mm

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 Spatial Resolution
1250dpi 300dpi
◼ Dot (pixels) per inch- DPI

◼ Examples:
◼ Newspapers 75dpi
◼ Magazines 133dpi
◼ Glossy brochures 175dpi 150dpi 72dpi

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 Gray-Level/ Intensity Resolution
◼ Smallest discernible change in gray level- highly
subjective process
◼ Discretion regarding the number of samples used to
generate a digital image, but this is not true for the
number of gray levels.
◼ Due to hardware considerations, # of gray levels
usually an integer power of 2.
◼ Most common: 8 bits, 16 bits used in some
applications
◼ Terminology: L-level digital image of size M x N
◼ Spatial resolution: M x N
◼ Gray level resolution: L

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Effects of Reducing Spatial Resolution

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Effects of Reducing Gray Level

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Effects of Reducing Gray Level

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 Neighbors of a Pixel
◼ An image is denoted by: f(x,y)
◼ Lowercase letters (e.g. p, q) will denote individual pixels
◼ A subset of f(x,y) is denoted by S

◼ Neighbors of a pixel:
◼ A pixel p at (x,y) has 4 horizontal/vertical neighbors at
◼ (x+1,y), (x-1,y), (x, y+1) and (x, y-1)
◼ called the 4-neighbors of p: N4(p)
◼ A pixel p at (x,y) has 4 diagonal neighbors at
◼ (x+1,y+1), (x+1,y-1), (x-1, y+1) and (x-1, y-1)
◼ called the diagonal-neighbors of p: ND(p)
◼ The 4-neighbors and the diagonal-neighbors of p are
called the 8-neighbors of p: N8(p)

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Example

4-Neighbors

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Connectivity Between Pixels
◼ Connectivity is an important concept in establishing boundaries
of object and components of regions in an image

◼ When are two pixels connected?

◼ If they are adjacent in some sense (say they are 4-neighbors)
◼ and, if their gray levels satisfy a specified criterion of similarity (say
they are equal)

◼ Example: given a binary image (e.g. gray scale = [0,1]), two

pixels may be 4-neighbors but are not considered connected
unless they have the same value

0 1
1 1

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