Intro

Vision is the most advanced of our senses, so it is not

surprising that images play the single most important role in
human perception. However, unlike humans, who are limited to
the visual band of the electromagnetic (EM) spectrum, imaging
machines cover almost the entire EM spectrum, ranging from
gamma to radio waves. They can operate on images generated
by sources that humans are not accustomed to associating with
images. These include ultrasound, electron microscopy, and
computer-generated images. Thus, digital image processing
encompasses a wide and varied field of applications.
Why images?
Images are the most common and convenient means of
conveying or transmitting information. An image is worth a
thousand words. Images concisely convey information about
positions, sizes and inter-relationships between objects. Human
beings are good at deriving information from such images,
because of our innate visual and mental abilities. About 75% of
the information received by human is in pictorial form.
Human visual system (HVS) receives an input image as a
collection of spatially distributed light energy; this is form is
called an optical image. Optical images are the type we deal
with every day, cameras captures them, monitors display them,
and we see them. These optical images are represented as
video information in the form of analog
electrical signals then they are
sampled to generate the digital image.
What is the Digital Image?

A digital image a[m,n] described in a 2D discrete space is

derived from an analog image a(x,y) in a 2D continuous space
through a sampling process that is frequently referred
to as digitization.
The 2D continuous image a(x,y) is divided into N
rows and M columns. The intersection of a row and a column is
termed a pixel. Every pixel has intensity .The value assigned to
the integer coordinates [m,n] is a[m,n]. In fact, in most cases
a(x,y) is actually a function of many variables including depth
(z), color (), and time (t).

What are the different types of images?

1- Binary Images:
Binary images are the simplest type of images and can take
on two values, typically black and white, or 0 and 1. A binary
image is referred to as a

1 bit/pixel image because it takes

only 1 binary digit to represent each pixel.

These types of images are most
frequently in computer vision
application where the only
information required for the task is
general shapes, or outlines
information. For example, to
position a robotics gripper to grasp
an object or in optical character
recognition (OCR).

Binary Image

pixel

Binary images are often created from gray-scale images via a

threshold value is, those values above it are turned white (1),
and those below it are turned black (0).
2- Gray Scale Image:
Gray Scale Images are referred to
as monochrome, or one-color
image. They contain brightness
information only , no color
information. The typical image
contains 8 bit/ pixel (data, which
allows us to have (0-255) different

Gray Scale Image

brightness (gray) levels). The 8 bit

representation is typically due to the fact that the byte, which
corresponds to 8-bit of data, is the standard small unit in the
world of digital computer.

3- Color Image:

Color image can be modeled

as three band monochrome image
data, where each band of the data
corresponds to a different color.
Typical color images are
represented as red, green , and
blue or RGB images .using the 8-

Color Image

bit monochrome standard as a model , the corresponding color

image would have 24 bit/pixel 8 bit for each color bands (red,
green and blue ). The following figure we see a representation of
a typical RGB color image.
4- Multispectral Image:
A multispectral image is one that captures image data at
specific frequencies across the
electromagnetic spectrum.
Multispectral images typically
contain information outside the
normal human perceptual range.
This may include infrared,
ultraviolet, X-ray, acoustic or radar
data. Source of these types of
images include satellite systems,
underwater sonar systems and
medical diagnostics imaging systems.

Multispectral Image

In computer graphics, types of image data are divided into

two primarily categories:
1. Bitmap image (or raster
image). can represented by our
image model a(x,y).

2. Vector images.
(Raster graphics are composed
of pixels, and it is an array of

Raster vs. Vector

pixels of various colors while vector graphics are composed of

paths , and it is made of mathematical calculations that form
objects and lines.).
Note: Because vector graphics are not made of pixels, the
images can be scaled to be very large without losing quality.
Raster graphics, on the other hand, become "blocky," since each
pixel increases in size as the image is made larger.
What is the Digital Image Processing (DIP)?
Image processing refers to the procedure of manipulating
images. Commonly image processing is carried out in digital
domain by means of computers. Digital image processing covers
a wide range of different techniques to change the properties or
appearance or to extract some information from an image.

Digital image processing systems are using at many

application principally automatic control, robots ..

Why we need image processing?

Computer Imaging Systems

Computer imaging systems are comprised of two primary
components
types, hardware and software. The hardware components can
be divided
into image acquiring system (computer, scanner, and camera)
and
display devices (monitor, printer).The software allows us to
manipulate the

image and perform any desired processing on the image data.

Purpose of Image processing:

The purpose of image processing is divided into 5 groups.
They are:
1.

Visualization - Observe the objects that are not visible.

2.
Image sharpening and restoration - To create a better
image.
3.

Image retrieval - Seek for the image of interest.

4.
Measurement of pattern Measures various objects in an
image.
5.

Image Recognition Distinguish the objects in an image.

How can get an image? Image Acquisition

The physical device that is sensitive to the energy radiated by
the object we wish to image (Sensor).

Today, most digital still cameras use either a CCD image

sensor or a CMOS sensor. Both types of sensor accomplish the
same task of capturing light and converting it into electrical
signals.
The image that we get it is a physical image, How can we
convert it into a digital image? Lets see.
There are numerous ways to acquire images, but our objective
in all is the same: to generate digital images from sensed data.
The output of most sensors is a continuous voltage waveform
whose amplitude and spatial behavior are related to the
physical phenomenon being sensed. To create a digital image,
we need to convert the continuous sensed data into digital form.
This involves two processes: sampling and quantization.

Digital Image Processing and Other Fields:

There is no general agreement among authors regarding

where image processing stops and other related areas, such as
image analysis and computer vision, start. Sometimes a
distinction is made by defining image processing as a discipline
in which both the input and output of a process are images. We
believe this to be a limiting and somewhat artificial boundary.
For example, under this definition, even the trivial task of
computing the average intensity of an image (which yields a
single number) would not be considered an image processing
operation. On the other hand, there are fields such as computer
vision whose ultimate goal is to use computers to emulate
human vision, including learning and being able to make
inferences and take actions based on visual inputs. This area
itself is a branch of artificial intelligence (AI) whose objective is
to emulate human intelligence. The field of AI is in its earliest
stages of infancy in terms of development, with progress having
been much slower than originally anticipated. The area of image
analysis (also called image understanding) is in between image
processing and computer vision.
There are no clear-cut boundaries in the continuum from
image processing at one end to computer vision at the other.
However, one useful paradigm is to consider three types of
computerized processes in this continuum: low-, mid-, and highlevel processes. Low-level processes involve primitive
operations such as image preprocessing to reduce noise,
contrast enhancement, and image sharpening. A low-level
process is characterized by the fact that both
its inputs and outputs are images. Mid-level processing on
images involves tasks such as segmentation (partitioning an
image into regions or objects), description of those objects to
reduce them to a form suitable for computer processing, and
classification (recognition) of individual objects. A mid-level
process is characterized by the fact that its inputs generally are
images, but its outputs are attributes extracted from those
images (e.g., edges, contours, and the identity of individual

objects). Finally, higher-level processing involves making

sense of an ensemble of recognized objects, as in image
analysis, and, at the far end of the continuum, performing the
cognitive functions normally associated with vision.
High Level Process
Input: Attributes Output: Understanding
Examples: Scene understanding, autonomous navigation

Based on the preceding comments, we see that a logical

place of overlap between image processing and image analysis
is the area of recognition of individual regions or objects in an
image. Thus, what we call in this book(Digital Image Processing,
Rafael C. Gonzalez) digital image processing encompasses
processes whose inputs and outputs are images and, in
addition, encompasses processes that extract attributes
from images, up to and including the recognition of
individual objects.
The processes of acquiring an image of the area containing the
text, preprocessing that image, extracting (segmenting) the
individual characters, describing the characters in a form
suitable for computer processing, and recognizing those
individual characters are in the scope of what we call digital
image processing in this book.
Making sense of the content of the page may be viewed
as being in the domain of image analysis and even computer
vision, depending on the level of complexity implied by the
statement making sense.