Image Processing

What is an Image?
• In a broad sense, an image is a picture or photograph.
• They are most common and convenient means of storing, conveying and
transmitting information.
• They concisely convey information about positions, sizes and
interrelationships between objects and portray spatial information that
we can recognize as objects.
• Mathematically, an image may be defined as a two-dimensional function
f(x,y), where x and y are spatial (plane) coordinates. The amplitude of f at
any pair of coordinates (x, y) (or in other words, any location in the image)
is called the intensity or gray level of the image and is proportional to the
brightness of the scene at that coordinate/location (x, y).
What is a Digital Image
• When a paper photograph is scanned through a scanner and stored in a
computer, it becomes a digital image as it has been converted into digital
mode.
• When you see a paper photograph and its digital version in a computer,
you do not see any difference. In digital mode, photographic information is
stored as an array of discrete numbers.
• Each number corresponds to a discrete dot, i.e. one image element in an
image. This image element is the smallest part of an image and is
generally known as picture element or pixel or pel.
 Image Format Usage Recommendations
Web images, email attachments, and situations where file size is more
Image formatsJPEG/JPG important than maximum image quality.

Simple animations, small icons, and images with limited color on the
GIF
web.
Images that require transparency or high-quality graphics on the
PNG
web, such as logos.
WebP Web images where file size and image quality are important.
HEIF/HEIC High-quality photos on iOS devices.

Use for professional photography, printing, and publishing where high-

TIFF
quality images are necessary.

Used in some specific cases where no compression is desired but

BMP
more uncommon.
PSD Images edited in Adobe Photoshop.
Images or text that needs to be easily shared, printed, and viewed in
PDF
a document format.
Professional photography to retain maximum image data for post-
RAW
processing.
High-quality graphics, logos, and illustrations that need to be resized
EPS
without losing quality.
AI Creating or editing graphics in Adobe Illustrator.
INDD Creating or editing complex layouts in Adobe InDesign.
A DWG file is a type of digital document. “DWG” stands for
DWG
“DraWinG.”
Image processing requirements.
• An image must be converted to numerical form before processing and
this conversion process is called digitization.
• In Fig the image is divided into horizontal lines made up of adjacent
pixels. At each pixel location, the image brightness is sampled and
quantized.
• This step generates an integer at each pixel representing the
brightness or darkness of the image at that point and is represented
by a two-dimensional integer array and digitized brightness value is
called gray level.
 Spatial resolution
• Spatial resolution refers to the ability of an imaging system to distinguish
between two closely positioned objects or points.

• It determines the level of detail an imaging system can capture and

represent, indicating the smallest discernible feature in an image.

• Higher resolution allows for clearer identification of fine structures and

subtle details. In essence, it defines the minimum distance at which two
separate points can be distinguished from one another rather than
appearing as a single blurred object.

• The concept applies across numerous imaging technologies, from satellite

imagery to microscopy, medical diagnostics, and industrial inspection
systems. The fundamental principle remains consistent: better resolution
equates to greater detail and more precise measurements.
Advantages of Digital Image Processing
Advantages of handling remote sensing data in digital mode
as compared to photographic mode are listed below:
 Ease in data storage and distribution
 Images can be identically duplicated during reproduction
and distribution
without any change or loss of information
 Visualisation of greater details
 Images can be processed to generate new images without
altering the
original image
 Faster extraction of quantitative information and
 Repeatability of results.
Components of an Image Processing System
Processing Machine (Computer)
It may be a general purpose computer according to task to be performed. The
basic use of this device is that it will perform all digital image processing task
off line.
Storage Device
Storage devices are used for storing of images for different purposes and use.
Display Device
It is used for displaying data. Example of a display device is generally a colour
monitor.
Image Processing Software
Image processing software such as IGIS, ERDAS, ENVI and Geomatica are
specially designed programming modules that perform specific tasks.
Printing Device
It is used for representing and storing image data in hard copy format. It could
be laser, inkjet or any other printer.
It is important to note that following factors should be considered while
selecting a digital image processing system:
Steps in Digital Image Processing
1. Image Preprocessing
2. Image Enhancement
3. Image Transformations
4. 4. Thematic Information Extraction
1. Image Preprocessing
It is usually necessary to preprocess remote sensing data prior to its analysis
because image data recorded by sensors contain errors which degrade quality
of the image and cause the image to appear noise, blurred and distorted.
The errors creep into during data acquisition process. Most common types of
errors are geometric and radiometric errors. All these errors are corrected using
suitable mathematical models at the time of preprocessing.
2. Image Enhancement
Image enhancement is carried out to improve the appearance of certain image
features to assist in human interpretation and analysis. You should note that
image enhancement is different from image preprocessing step. Image
enhancement step highlights image features for interpreter whereas image
preprocessing step reconstructs a relatively better image from an originally
imperfect/degraded image.
Image Transformations
Image transformations are operations similar in concept to those for image
enhancement. However, unlike image enhancement operations which are
normally applied only to a single channel of data at a time, image
transformations usually involve algebric operations of multi-layer images.
Algebric operations such as subtraction, addition, multiplication, division,
alogarithms, exponentials and trigonometric functions are applied to transform
the original images into new images which display better or highlight certain
features in the image.
4. Thematic Information Extraction
It includes all the processes used for extracting thematic
information from images. Image classification is one such
process which categorises pixels in an image into some thematic
classes such as land cover classes based on spectral signatures.
Image classification procedures are further categorised into
supervised, unsupervised and hybrid depending upon the level of
human intervention in the process of classification.