Digital Image Processing

Course Code: 23ECE151

Semester: V
Course Handling Faculty: Dr. Sameera P
 Syllabus
Module 1: Digital Image Fundamentals
What is Digital Image Processing?
Origins of Digital Image Processing
Examples of fields that use DIP
Fundamental Steps in Digital Image Processing
Components of an Image Processing System,
Elements of Visual Perception
Image Sensing and Acquisition
Image Sampling and Quantization
Some Basic Relationships Between Pixels
Linear and Nonlinear Operations
 What is Digital Image Processing?
• An image is a 2D function f(x, y):
x, y: spatial coordinates
f: intensity / grey level
f(x, y): Pixel
Image: An image is defined as a two-dimensional function, f(x ,y) where x and
y are spatial (plane) coordinates, and the amplitude of f at any pair of
coordinates (x , y) is called the intensity or gray level of the image at that
point
• If x, y and f are discrete: Digital Image
Digital Image: When x, y, and the intensity values of f are all finite, discrete
quantities, we call the image a digital image
 Continued
• A digital image is composed of a finite number of elements, each of
which has a particular location and value. These elements are called
picture elements, image elements, pels, and pixels
• If f(x, y) is:
0 / 1: Binary Image
[0, 255]: Gray Scale B/W Image
[0, 255], [0, 255], [0, 255]: Color or Multispectral Image
RGB: Red-Green-Blue
HSV: Hue-Saturation-Value
HSL: Hue-Saturation-Lightness
CMYK: Cyan-Magenta-Yellow-Black
• Digital Image Processing refers to processing digital images by means
of a digital computer
Origins of Digital Image Processing
 Continued
• Digital image processing techniques began in the late 1960s and early 1970s to be
used in
Medical imaging
Remote Earth resources observations and
Astronomy
• The invention in the early 1970s of computerized axial tomography (CAT), also
called computerized tomography (CT) for short, is one of the most important
events in the application of image processing in medical diagnosis
• From the 1960s until the present, the field of image processing has grown
vigorously. In addition to applications in medicine and the space program, digital
image processing techniques are now used in a broad range of applications
Biology
Nuclear medicine,
Law enforcement
Defense, and industry etc.
 Examples of fields that use DIP
• Images based on radiation from the EM spectrum - Images in the X-
ray and visual bands of the spectrum

• GAMMA-RAY IMAGING
1. Nuclear medicine – Bone Scan and Positron Emission Tomography
(PET) using Gamma Rays
2. Astronomical Observations – Cygnus Explosion in a Cygnus loop and
Gamma radiation from a valve in a nuclear reactor
Continued
 Continued
• X-RAY IMAGING
• Medical Diagnosis
1. Bone X-Ray
2. Angiography
3. CAT
• Industrial Scanning & Testing
• Astronomy
 Continued
• IMAGING IN THE ULTRAVIOLET BAND
1. Industrial Inspection
2. Microscopy (Fluorescence)
3. Lasers
4. Biological Imaging
5. Astronomical Observations
 Continued
• IMAGING IN THE VISIBLE AND INFRARED BANDS
1. Light Microscopy
2. Remote Sensing
3. Weather Observation /Prediction
4. Automated Visual Inspection
5. Finger Printing
6. Iris Recognition
 Continued
• Thematic Bands in NASA’s LANDSAT satellites
The primary function of LANDSAT is to obtain and transmit images of
the Earth from space, for purposes of monitoring environmental
conditions on the planet
Continued
Continued
 Continued
• IMAGING IN THE MICROWAVE BAND
The principal application of imaging in the microwave band is RADAR
• IMAGING IN THE RADIO BAND
Medicine: MRI
Astronomy
 Continued
• OTHER IMAGING MODALITIES
Imaging using “sound” finds application in geological exploration, industry, and
medicine
Ultrasound images are generated using the following basic procedure:
1. The ultrasound system (a computer, ultrasound probe consisting of a source, a
receiver, and a display) transmits high-frequency (1 to 5 MHz) sound pulses into the
body.
2. The sound waves travel into the body and hit a boundary between tissues (e.g.,
between fluid and soft tissue, soft tissue and bone). Some of the sound waves are
reflected back to the probe, while some travel on further until they reach another
boundary and are reflected.
3. The reflected waves are picked up by the probe and relayed to the computer.
4. The machine calculates the distance from the probe to the tissue or organ
boundaries using the speed of sound in tissue (1540 m/s) and the time of each
echo’s return.
5. The system displays the distances and intensities of the echoes on the screen,
forming a two-dimensional image.
 Continued
• A transmission electron
microscope (TEM) works
much like a slide projector.
• A projector transmits a
beam of light through a
slide; as the light passes
through the slide, it is
modulated by the
contents of the slide.
• This transmitted beam is
A scanning electron microscope (SEM), on the then projected onto the
other hand, actually scans the electron beam viewing screen
and records the interaction of beam and
sample at each location
Continued
Fundamental Steps in Digital Image Processing
 Continued
• Image Acquisition: Acquisition could be as simple as being given an
image that is already in digital form.
It involves Pre-Processing such as Scaling
• Image Enhancement: It is the process of manipulating an image so
the result is more suitable than the original for a specific application
Enhancement, on the other hand, is based on human subjective
preferences regarding what constitutes a “good” enhancement result.
• Image restoration: Is an area that also deals with improving the
appearance of an image
 image restoration is objective, in the sense that restoration
techniques tend to be based on mathematical or probabilistic models
of image degradation
 Continued
• Colour image processing: covers fundamental concepts in color models
and basic color processing in a digital domain.
Color is used also as the basis for extracting features of interest in an
image.
• Wavelets: are the foundation for representing images in various degrees of
resolution
• Compression: As the name implies, deals with techniques for reducing the
storage required to save an image, or the bandwidth required to transmit it
• Morphological Processing: deals with tools for extracting image
components that are useful in the representation and description of shape
• Segmentation: Partitions an image into its constituent parts or objects
 Continued
• Feature extraction: Consists of Feature detection and Feature
description.
Feature detection refers to finding the features in an image, region, or
boundary.
Feature description assigns quantitative attributes to the detected
features.
• Image pattern classification: Is the process that assigns a label (e.g.,
“vehicle”) to an object based on its feature descriptors
Components of an Image Processing System
 Continued
• Image Sensor: Two subsystems are required to acquire digital images.
The first is a physical sensor that responds to the energy radiated by
the object we wish to image.
The second, called a digitizer, is a device for converting the output of
the physical sensing device into digital form
• Specialized image processing hardware: Consists of the digitizer just
mentioned, plus hardware that performs other primitive operations,
such as an arithmetic logic unit (ALU), that performs arithmetic and
logical operations in parallel on entire images.
• This type of hardware sometimes is called a front-end subsystem, and
its most distinguishing characteristic is speed
 Continued
• The computer in an image processing system is a general-purpose
computer and can range from a PC to a supercomputer
• Software for image processing consists of specialized modules that
perform specific tasks
Commercially available image processing software, such as the well-known
MATLAB® Image Processing Toolbox is an example
• Mass storage is a must in image processing applications
Digital storage for image processing applications falls into three principal
categories:
1. Short-term storage for use during processing Eg: Computer Memory,
Frame Buffers
2. On-line storage for relatively fast recall and Eg: Servers
3. Archival storage, characterized by infrequent access Eg: Magnetic discks,
Opticle discks
 Continued
• Storage is measured in bytes (eight bits), Kbytes (10^3 bytes), Mbytes
(10^6 bytes), Gbytes (10^9 bytes), and Tbytes (10^12 bytes).
• Image displays in use today are mainly color, flat screen monitors.
Monitors are driven by the outputs of image and graphics display
cards that are an integral part of the computer system
• Hardcopy devices for recording images include laser printers, film
cameras, heat sensitive devices, ink-jet units, and digital units, such
as optical and CD-ROM disk
• Networking and cloud communication provides communications
with remote sites via the internet
 Elements of Visual Perception
• STRUCTURE OF THE HUMAN EYE
• Diameter of Eye: About 20mm
• Enclosed by three membranes:
the cornea and sclera outer
cover; the choroid; and the
retina.
• The cornea is a tough,
transparent tissue that covers
the anterior surface of the eye
• Continuous with the cornea, the
sclera is an opaque membrane
that encloses the remainder of
the optic globe
 Continued
• The choroid lies directly below the sclera. This membrane contains a
network of blood vessels that serve as the major source of nutrition
to the eye
• The choroid is divided into the ciliary body and the iris.
• Iris contracts or expands to control the amount of light that enters
the eye
• The central opening of the iris (the pupil) varies in diameter from
approximately 2 to 8 mm
• The front of the iris contains the visible pigment of the eye, whereas
the back contains a black pigment
• The lens consists of concentric layers of fibrous cells and is suspended
by fibers that attach to the ciliary body
 Continued
• The lens absorbs approximately 8% of the visible light spectrum, with
higher absorption at shorter wavelengths
• The innermost membrane of the eye is the retina, which lines the inside of
the wall’s entire posterior portion
• When the eye is focused, light from an object is imaged on the retina
• There are two types of receptors: cones and rods
• There are between 6 and 7 million cones, 75 to 150 million rods in each eye
• Cone vision is called Photopic or Bright-light vision and highly sensitive to
color
• Rods capture an overall image of the field of view. They are not involved in
color vision, and are sensitive to low levels of illumination
• The fovea itself is a circular indentation in the retina of about 1.5 mm in
diameter, so it has an area of approximately 1.77 mm2
 Elements of Visual Perception
IMAGE FORMATION IN THE EYE
• In an ordinary photographic camera the lens has a fixed focal length.
Focusing at various distances is achieved by varying the distance
between the lens and the imaging plane, where the film is located
• In the human eye, the converse is true; the distance between the
center of the lens and the imaging sensor (the retina) is fixed, and the
focal length needed to achieve proper focus is obtained by varying
the shape of the lens
• The fibers in the ciliary body accomplish this by flattening or
thickening the lens for distant or near objects, respectively.
 Continued

• For example, suppose that a person is looking at a tree 15 m high

at a distance of 100 m
• Letting h denote the height of that object in the retinal image.
15/100 = h/17 or h = 2.5 mm
• Perception then takes place by the relative excitation of light
receptors, which transform radiant energy into electrical impulses
that ultimately are decoded by the brain
 Image Sensing and Acquisition
IMAGE ACQUISITION USING A SINGLE SENSING ELEMENT
• The below figure shows the components of a single sensing element
• A familiar sensor of this type is the
photodiode, which is constructed of silicon
materials and whose output is a voltage
proportional to light intensity
• A filter in front of a sensor improves its
selectivity.
• Example: Optical green-transmission filter
favors light in the green band of the color
spectrum.
• As a consequence, the sensor output would
be stronger for green light than for other
visible light components.
 Continued
• In order to generate a 2-D image using a single sensing element, there has to be
relative displacements in both the x- and y-directions between the sensor and
the area to be imaged
• A film negative is mounted onto a drum whose
mechanical rotation provides displacement in
one dimension
• The sensor is mounted on a lead screw that
provides motion in the perpendicular direction
• A light source is contained inside the drum. As
the light passes through the film, its intensity is
modified by the film density before it is captured
by the sensor.
• This "modulation" of the light intensity causes
corresponding variations in the sensor voltage,
which are ultimately converted to image
intensity levels by digitization
 Continued
IMAGE ACQUISITION USING SENSOR STRIPS
• A geometry used more frequently than single sensors is an in-line
sensor strip as shown in below figure

• The strip provides imaging elements in one direction. Motion

perpendicular to the strip provides imaging in the other direction as
shown in below figure
 Continued
• Sensor strips in a ring configuration are used in medical and industrial
imaging to obtain cross-sectional (“slice”) images of 3-D objects
• A rotating X-ray source provides illumination, and X-
ray sensitive sensors opposite the source collect the
energy that passes through the object.
• The output of the sensors is processed by
reconstruction algorithms whose objective is to
transform the sensed data into meaningful cross-
sectional images
• A 3-D digital volume consisting of stacked images is
generated as the object is moved in a direction
perpendicular to the sensor ring.
• This is the basis for MRI and industrial computerized
axial tomography (CAT) imaging
 Continued
IMAGE ACQUISITION USING SENSOR ARRAYS
• Diagram shows individual sensing elements arranged in the form of a
2-D array.
• Application
1. Electromagnetic and ultrasonic
sensing devices
2. Digital Cameras
• A typical sensor for these cameras is
a CCD (charge-coupled device) array
• The response of each sensor is
proportional to the integral of the
light energy projected onto the
surface of the sensor
 Continued
• Diagram shows the principal manner in which array sensors are used

• The first function performed by the imaging

system in is to collect the incoming energy and
focus it onto an image plane
• If the illumination is light, the front end of the
imaging system is an optical lens that projects
the viewed scene onto the focal plane of the
lens
• The sensor array, which is coincident with the
focal plane, produces outputs proportional to
the integral of the light received at each sensor
• Digital and analog circuitry sweep these
outputs and convert them to an analog signal,
which is then digitized by another section of
the imaging system
 Continued
A SIMPLE IMAGE FORMATION MODEL
• Images are denoted by two-dimensional functions of the form f(x,y)
• The value of f(x,y) ranges from 0 ≤ f(x,y) < ∞
• Function f(x,y) is characterized by two components:
1. illumination i(x,y) : The amount of source illumination incident on
the scene being viewed
2. reflectance r(x,y) : the amount of illumination reflected by the
objects in the scene
• 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) < ∞ & 0 ≤ r(x,y) < 1
 Continued
• Let the intensity (gray level) of a monochrome image at any
coordinates (x,y) be denoted by

• L lies in the range

• Where
𝑳𝒎𝒊𝒏 = 𝒊𝒎𝒊𝒏 𝒓𝒎𝒊𝒏 & 𝑳𝒎𝒂𝒙 = 𝒊𝒎𝒂𝒙 𝒓𝒎𝒂𝒙
 Image Sampling and Quantization
• To create a digital image, we need to convert the continuous sensed
data into a digital format. This requires two processes: sampling and
quantization
• Diagram shows a continuous image f that we want to convert to
digital form
• Image is continuous with respect to the x-
and y-coordinates, and also in amplitude
• To digitize it, we have to sample the function
in both coordinates and also in amplitude
• Digitizing the coordinate values is called
sampling
• Digitizing the amplitude values is called
quantization
Continued
• The one-dimensional function is a
plot of amplitude (intensity level)
values of the continuous image
along the line segment AB
• To sample this function, we take
equally spaced samples along line
AB
• The set of dark squares constitute
the sampled function
• However, the values of the
samples still span (vertically) a
continuous range of intensity
values. In order to form a digital
function, the intensity values also
must be converted (quantized)
into discrete quantities.
 Continued
• The vertical gray bar depicts the intensity scale divided into eight
discrete intervals, ranging from black to white.
• The vertical tick marks indicate the specific value assigned to each of
the eight intensity intervals.
• The continuous intensity levels are quantized by assigning one of the
eight values to each sample, depending on the vertical proximity of a
sample to a vertical tick mark
• Starting at the top of the continuous image and carrying out this
procedure downward, line by line, produces a two-dimensional digital
image
 REPRESENTING DIGITAL IMAGES
• Let f(s,t) represent a continuous image function of two continuous
variables, s and t
• Convert this function f(s,t) into a digital image f(x,y) by sampling and
quantization where (x,y) are discrete coordinates
X = {0, 1, 2,…….,M-1} & Y = {0, 1, 2,…….,N-1}
• There are three ways to represent digital image f(x,y)
First Type
1. f(x,y) is a plot of the function, with two axes determining
spatial location and the third axis being the values of f as
a function of x and y.
2. This representation is useful when working with grayscale
sets whose elements are expressed as triplets of the form
(x,y,z) , where x and y are spatial coordinates and z is the
value of f at coordinates (x,y).
 Continued
Second Type
• Intensity of each point in the
display is proportional to the
value of f at that point.
• There are only three equally
spaced intensity values 0, 0.5
and 1.
• A monitor or printer converts
these three values to black, gray,
or white, respectively

Third Type
• The third representation is an array (matrix) composed of the numerical values of f(x,y).
• This is the representation used for computer processing.
 Continued
• In equation form, we write the representation of an MxN numerical
array as

• Each element of this array is called an image element, picture

element, pixel, or pel.
• We can also represent a digital image in a traditional matrix form
Continued
• Define the origin of an image at
the top left corner.
• This is a convention based on the
fact that many image displays (e.g.,
TV monitors) sweep an image
starting at the top left and moving
to the right, one row at a time
• Positive x-axis extends downward
and the positive y-axis extends to
the right
• Right-handed Cartesian coordinate
system but rotated by 90° so that
the origin appears on the top, left
 Continued
• The center of an M x N digital image with origin is obtained by
dividing M and N by 2 and rounding down to the nearest integer.
• This operation is denoted using the floor operator
(Xc,Yc) = (floor(M/2),floor(N/2))
• Some programming languages (e.g., MATLAB) start indexing at 1
instead of at 0

(Xc,Yc) = (floor(M/2)+1,floor(N/2)+1)
 LINEAR VS. COORDINATE INDEXING
• The convention discussed in the previous section, in which the
location of a pixel is given by its 2-D coordinates, is referred to as
coordinate indexing, or subscript indexing.
• Another type of indexing used extensively in programming image
processing algorithms is linear indexing

• 1-D string of nonnegative

integers based on computing
offsets from coordinates (0,0)
• The idea is to scan an image
column by column, starting at
the origin and proceeding down
and then to the right
 Continued
• For any pair of coordinates (x,y), the corresponding linear index value
is
α = 𝑀𝑦 + 𝑥
• Conversely, the coordinate indices for a given linear index value a are
given by the equations
𝑥 = α 𝑚𝑜𝑑 𝑀
&
𝑦 = (α − 1)/𝑀
 SPATIAL AND INTENSITY RESOLUTION
• Spatial resolution is a measure of the smallest discernible detail in an
image.
• Quantitatively, spatial resolution can be stated in several ways, as line
pairs per unit distance, and dots (pixels) per unit distance
• A widely used definition of image resolution is the largest number of
discernible line pairs per unit distance (e.g., 100 line pairs per mm).
• Dots per unit distance is a measure of image resolution used in the
printing and publishing industry Eg: 73 dpi, 133 dpi
• Intensity resolution similarly refers to the smallest discernible change
in intensity level
• The number of intensity levels usually is an integer power of two
• The most common number is 8 bits, with 16 bits being used in some
applications in which enhancement of specific intensity ranges is
necessary
Continued
 IMAGE INTERPOLATION
• Interpolation is used in tasks such as zooming, shrinking, rotating, and
geometrically correcting digital images
• Our principal objective in this section is to introduce interpolation and
apply it to image resizing (shrinking and zooming)
• Interpolation is the process of using known data to estimate values at
unknown locations
• Nearest Neighbour Interpolation: It assigns to each new location the
intensity of its nearest neighbor in the original image
• Bilinear Interpolation: It uses the four nearest neighbors to estimate
the intensity at a given location
 Continued
• Let (x,y) denote the coordinates of the location to which we want to
assign an intensity value and let v(x,y) denote that intensity value.
• For bilinear interpolation, the assigned value is obtained using the
equation
𝑣 𝑥, 𝑦 = 𝑎𝑥 + 𝑏𝑦 + 𝑐𝑥𝑦 + 𝑑
where the four coefficients are the four nearest neighbors of point (x,y)
• Bicubic Interpolation: It uses the sixteen nearest neighbors to
estimate the intensity at a given location
• The intensity value assigned to point (x,y) is obtained using the
equation
• The sixteen coefficients are determined using the sixteen nearest
neighbors of point (x,y)
Continued
SOME BASIC RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN PIXELS
NEIGHBORS OF A PIXEL
• A pixel p at coordinates (x,y) has two horizontal and two vertical neighbors
with coordinates
(x+1,y),(x-1,y),(x,y+1),(x,y-1)
This set of pixels, called the 4-neighbors of p, is denoted 𝑁4 (𝑃).
The four diagonal neighbors of p have coordinates
(x+1,y+1),(x+1,y-1),(x-1,y+1),(x-1,y-1)
and are denoted 𝑁𝐷 (𝑃).
• These neighbors, together with the 4-neighbors, are called the 8-neighbors
of p, denoted by 𝑁8 𝑃
• The set of image locations of the neighbors of a point p is called the
neighborhood of p.
• The neighborhood is said to be closed if it contains p. Otherwise, the
neighborhood is said to be open.
 Continued
ADJACENCY, CONNECTIVITY, REGIONS, AND BOUNDARIES
• Let V be the set of intensity values used to define adjacency
• In a binary image V = {1} if we are referring to adjacency of pixels with
value 1
• In a grayscale image, the idea is the same, but set V typically contains
more elements.
For example, if we are dealing with the adjacency of pixels whose
values are in the range 0 to 255, set V could be any subset of these 256
values.
• We consider three types of adjacency:
1. 4-adjacency: Two pixels p and q with values from V are 4-adjacent if
q is in the set 𝑁4 (𝑃)
 Continued
2. 8-adjacency: Two pixels p and q with values from V are 8-adjacent if
q is in the set 𝑁8 𝑃
3. m-adjacency (also called mixed adjacency): Two pixels p and q with
values from V are m-adjacent if
a. Q is in 𝑁4 (𝑃)
b. Q is in 𝑁𝐷 (𝑃) and the set 𝑁4 (𝑃) ∩ 𝑁4 (𝑞)has no pixels whose values
are from V
A digital path (or curve) from pixel p with coordinates (𝑥0 , 𝑦0 ) to
pixel q with coordinates (𝑥𝑛 , 𝑦𝑛 ) is a sequence of distinct pixels with
coordinates
(𝑥0 , 𝑦0 ), (𝑥1 , 𝑦1 ),…….,(𝑥𝑛 , 𝑦𝑛 )
 Continued
• If (𝑥0 , 𝑦0 ) = (𝑥𝑛 , 𝑦𝑛 ) the path is a closed path
• Let S represent a subset of pixels in an image. Two pixels p and q are said to
be connected in S if there exists a path between them consisting entirely of
pixels in S
• For any pixel p in S, the set of pixels that are connected to it in S is called a
connected component of S.
• If it only has one component, and that component is connected, then S is
called a connected set.
• Let R represent a subset of pixels in an image. We call R a region of the
image if R is a connected set.
• Two regions, Ri and Rj are said to be adjacent if their union forms a
connected set.
• Regions that are not adjacent are said to be disjoint
 Continued
• The boundary (also called the border or contour) of a region R is the
set of pixels in R that are adjacent to pixels in the complement of R.
This boundary is also called inner boundary
• If R happens to be an entire image, then its boundary (or border) is
defined as the set of pixels in the first and last rows and columns of
the image
• An edge is a “local” concept that is based on a measure of intensity-
level discontinuity at a point.
• Edges are formed from pixels with derivative values that exceed a
preset threshold
 LINEAR VERSUS NONLINEAR OPERATIONS
• Consider a general operator H, that produces an output image, g(x,y), from
a given input image, f(x,y):
H(f(x,y))=g(x,y)
• Given two arbitrary constants, a and b, and two arbitrary images f1(x,y)
and f2(x,y), H is said to be a linear operator if
H[af1(x,y)+bf2(x,y)]=a H(f1(x,y)) + b H(f2(x,y))
= g1(x,y) + g2(x,y)
• This equation indicates that the output of a linear operation applied to the
sum of two inputs is the same as performing the operation individually on
the inputs and then summing the results
• The first property is called the property of additivity
• By definition, an operator that fails to satisfy above equation is said to be
nonlinear.
 Continued

• Exercise
1. Prove Sum Operator is Linear
2. Prove Max Operator is Non-Linear