Digital Image Processing

Chapter 2: Digital Image

Fundamentals
Outline
2.1 Elements of Visual Perception
2.1.1 Structure of human eye
2.1.2 Image Formation in the Eye
2.1.3 Brightness Adaptation and Discrimination
2.2 Light and the 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
Digital Image

Digital image = a multidimensional

array of numbers (such as intensity image)
or vectors (such as color image)

Each component in the image 10 10 16 28

 9 656 70 37 43
26 56
called pixel associates with  32 99 54 70
96 56 67 78
15 2 60 90 96  67
 
5 13 22
the pixel value (a single number in 32215 54 47 42 
the case of intensity images or a   85 853943  92
1 87
54  65 65 39 
vector in the case of color images). 32 65 87 99
Human Eye Structure

Three membranes enclose the eye:

Cornea and sclera, Choroid, Retina

ciliary iris
body diaphragm
Pupil size: 2-8mm
Eye color: melanin (pigment) in iris
Visual Perception: Human Eye (cont.)

1. The lens contains 60-70% water, 6% of fat.

2. The iris diaphragm controls amount of light that enters the eye.
3. Light receptors in the retina
- About 6-7 millions cones for bright light vision called photopic
- Density of cones is about 150,000 elements/mm2.
- Cones involve in color vision.
- Cones are concentrated in fovea about 1.5x1.5 mm2.
- About 75-150 millions rods for dim light vision called scotopic
- Rods are sensitive to low level of light and are not involved
in color vision.
4. Blind spot is the region of emergence of the optic nerve from the eye.
Distribution of Rods and Cones in the Retina

(Images from Rafael C. Gonzalez and Richard E.

Wood, Digital Image Processing, 2nd Edition.
Image Formation in the Eye

Focal length: 14-17mm Length of tree image2.55mm

For distant objects (>3m), lens exhibits the least refractive power (flattened)

For nearby objects (<1m), lens is most strongly refractive (curved)

Lightness Perception: Objective Quantities

• Luminance is the amount of visible light that comes to the eye

from a surface.
• Illuminance is the amount of light incident on a surface.
• Reflectance (also called albedo) is the proportion of incident
light that is reflected from a surface.

– varies from 0% to 100% where 0% is ideal black and 100% is ideal

white. In practice, typical black paint is about 5% and typical white
paint about 85%.
Lightness Perception: Subjective Quantities

• Lightness is the perceived reflectance of a surface.

It represents the visual system's attempt to extract
reflectance based on the luminances in the scene.

• Brightness is the perceived intensity of light

coming from the image itself, rather than any
property of the portrayed scene. Brightness is
sometimes defined as perceived luminance.
 Checker-block Illustration*

Patches p and q have the same

reflectance, but different
luminances.
Patches q and r have different
reflectances and different
luminances; they share the same
illuminance.
90
0.1 Patches p and r happen to have
0.9
0.9 10 the same luminance, because the
0.1 lower reflectance of p is
counterbalanced by its higher
illuminance.
Importance of Visual Context
Lightness Illusion

If we cover the right side of the figure and view the left side,
it appears that the stripes are due to paint (reflectance). If we
cover the left side and view the right, it appears that the
stripes are due to different lighting on the stair steps
(illumination).
Another Lightness Illusion
Range of Relative Brightness Sensation

Human visual system cannot operate

over such a high dynamic range
simultaneously, But accomplish such
large variation by changes in its
overall sensitivity, a phenomenon
called “brightness adaptation”
Simultaneous range is smaller than
total adaptation range

(Images from Rafael C. Gonzalez and Richard E.

Wood, Digital Image Processing, 2nd Edition.
Scotopic Vision

• Scotopic vision is the monochromatic vision of the eye in

dim light. Since cone cells are nonfunctional in low light,
scotopic vision is produced exclusively through rod cells so
therefore there is no colour perception.
– Scotopic vision occurs at luminance levels of 10-2 to 10-6 cd/m².
• Mesopic vision occurs in intermediate lighting conditions
(luminance level 10-2 to 1 cd/m²) and is effectively a
combination of scotopic and photopic vision.
– This however gives inaccurate visual acuity and colour
discrimination.
• In normal light (luminance level 1 to 106 cd/m²), the vision
of cone cells dominates and is photopic vision.
– There is good visual acuity (VA) and colour discrimination.
Mach Band Effect

Perceived brightness is not a

simple function of intensity.

Intensities of surrounding points

effect perceived brightness at each
point.

In this image, edges between bars

appear brighter on the right side
and darker on the left side.

(Images from Rafael C. Gonzalez and Richard E.

Wood, Digital Image Processing, 2nd Edition.
Brightness Adaptation of Human Eye : Simultaneous Contrast

A region ’s perceived brightness does not depend simply on its

intensity

Simultaneous contrast. All small squares have exactly the same intensity
but they appear progressively darker as background becomes lighter.
Optical illusion

(Images from Rafael C. Gonzalez and Richard E.

Wood, Digital Image Processing, 2nd Edition.
Visible Spectrum

(Images from Rafael C. Gonzalez and Richard E.

Wood, Digital Image Processing, 2nd Edition.
 Light: the Visible Spectrum

• Visible range: 0.43µm(violet)-0.78µm(red)

• Six bands: violet, blue, green, yellow, orange, red
• The color of an object is determined by the nature of the
light reflected by the object
• Monochromatic light (gray level)
• Three elements measuring chromatic light
– Radiance : total amount of energy that flows from the
light source(Watt)
– Luminance : measure of the amount of energy an
observer perceives from a light source(lumens, lm)
– Brightness : a subjective descriptor of light perception
– Ex) light emitted in far infrared region with large
radiance, but no luminance
 Beyond Visible

• Gamma-ray and X-ray: medical and

astronomical applications
• Infrared (thermal imaging): near-infrared
and far-infrared
• Microwave imaging:
• Radio-frequency: MRI and astronomic
applications
Image Sensors

Single sensor

Line sensor

Array sensor

(Images from Rafael C. Gonzalez and Richard E.

Wood, Digital Image Processing, 2nd Edition.
Fundamentals of Digital Images

Origin

y
Image “After snow storm” f(x,y)
 An image: a multidimensional function of spatial coordinates.
 Spatial coordinate: (x,y) for 2D case such as photograph,
(x,y,z) for 3D case such as CT scan images
(x,y,t) for movies
 The function f may represent intensity (for monochrome images)
or color (for color images) or other associated values.
Digital Images

Digital image: an image that has been discretized both in

Spatial coordinates and associated value.

 Consist of 2 sets:(1) a point set and (2) a value set

 Can be represented in the form

I = {(x,a(x)): x X, a(x)  F}
where X and F are a point set and value set, respectively.

 An element of the image, (x,a(x)) is called a pixel where

- x is called the pixel location and
- a(x) is the pixel value at the location x
Conventional Coordinate for Image Representation

Spatial resolution

Bit-depth resolution

(Images from Rafael C. Gonzalez and Richard E.

Wood, Digital Image Processing, 2nd Edition.
Bit-depth Resolution
Bit-depth Resolution (Con’d)
Digital Image Types : Intensity Image

Intensity image or monochrome image

each pixel corresponds to light intensity
normally represented in gray scale (gray
level).

Gray scale values

10 16 28

 6 26 37

25 13 22

 15 87 39

Digital Image Types : RGB Image

Color image or RGB image:

each pixel contains a vector
representing red, green and
blue components.

RGB components
10 10 16 28
 9 65 70 56  43
 32699  67 78
26703756
54 96
15  256013902296  67
3221 54 42 
47  39
  1 855 85 87
43  92
54
   
65
32 65
65 87 39  99
Image Types : Binary Image

Binary image or black and white image

Each pixel contains one bit :
1 represent white
0 represents black

Binary data
0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0

1 1 1 1
1 1
 1 1
Image Types : Index Image

Index image
Each pixel contains index number
pointing to a color in a color table

Color Table
Inde Red Green Blue
component component component
x
No.
1 0.1 0.5 0.3
2 1.0 0.0 0.0
1 4 9 
6 4 7 
  3 0.0 1.0 0.0
 6 5 2  4 0.5 0.5 0.5

Index value 5 0.2 0.8 0.9

… … … …
Digital Image Acquisition Process

(Images from Rafael C. Gonzalez and Richard E.

Wood, Digital Image Processing, 2nd Edition.
Image Formation Model

f(x,y)=i(x,y)r(x,y)

0<f(x,y)<∞ Intensity – proportional to energy

radiated by a physical source

0<i(x,y)<∞ illumination

0<r(x,y)<1 reflectance (“intrinsic images”)

Generating a Digital Image

(Images from Rafael C. Gonzalez and Richard E.

Wood, Digital Image Processing, 2nd Edition.
Image Sampling and Quantization

Image sampling: discretize an image in the spatial domain

Spatial resolution / image resolution: pixel size or number of pixels
(Images from Rafael C. Gonzalez and Richard E.
Wood, Digital Image Processing, 2nd Edition.
How to choose the spatial resolution

Spatial resolution = Sampling locations

Original image
Sampled image

Under sampling, we lost some image details!

How to choose the spatial resolution : Nyquist Rate

Original image
Sampled image

1mm
2mm

No detail is lost!
Minimum Nyquist Rate:
Spatial resolution
Period Spatial resolution must be less or equal
(sampling rate) half of the minimum period of the image
or sampling frequency must be greater or
= Sampling locations
Equal twice of the maximum frequency.
Effect of Spatial Resolution

256x256 pixels 128x128 pixels

64x64 pixels 32x32 pixels

Effect of Spatial Resolution

(Images from Rafael C. Gonzalez and Richard E.

Wood, Digital Image Processing, 2nd Edition.
Effect of Spatial Resolution

(Images from Rafael C. Gonzalez and Richard E.

Wood, Digital Image Processing, 2nd Edition.
Can we increase spatial resolution by interpolation ?

Down sampling is an irreversible process.

(Images from Rafael C. Gonzalez and Richard E.
Wood, Digital Image Processing, 2nd Edition.
Moire Pattern Effect : Special Case of Sampling

Moire patterns occur when frequencies of two superimposed

periodic patterns are close to each other.

(Images from Rafael C. Gonzalez and Richard E.

Wood, Digital Image Processing, 2nd Edition.
Alias Frequency

It would normally be expected that the input signal was:

If the reconstructed
signal is different to
the original, it is
However, the input could have been:
said to be an alias
Alias Frequency

More examples of aliasing:

One cycle between samples

Two cycles between samples

If fact there is an infinite number of possible alias frequencies:

Aliasing is caused by not taking enough samples of the waveform

per cycle.
Image Quantization

Image quantization:
discretize continuous pixel values into discrete numbers

Color resolution/ color depth/ levels:

- No. of colors or gray levels or
- No. of bits representing each pixel value
- No. of colors or gray levels Nc is given by

Nc = 2 b

where b = no. of bits

Quantization function

Nc-1

Nc-2

Quantization level
2

1
0
Light intensity
Darkest Brightest
Effect of Quantization Levels

256 levels 128 levels

64 levels 32 levels
Effect of Quantization Levels (cont.)

16 levels 8 levels

In this image,
it is easy to see
false contour.

4 levels 2 levels
How to select the suitable size and pixel depth of images

The word “suitable” is subjective: depending on “subject”.

Low detail image Medium detail image High detail image

Lena image Cameraman image

To satisfy human mind

1. For images of the same size, the low detail image may need more pixel depth.
2. As an image size increase, fewer gray levels may be needed.
(Images from Rafael C. Gonzalez and Richard E.
Wood, Digital Image Processing, 2nd Edition.
Isopreference curve
Human vision: Spatial Frequency vs Contrast
Basic Relationship of Pixels

(0,0) x

(x-1,y-1) (x,y-1) (x+1,y-1)

(x-1,y) (x,y) (x+1,y)

y

(x-1,y+1) (x,y+1) (x+1,y+1)

Conventional indexing method

Neighbors of a Pixel

Neighborhood relation is used to tell adjacent pixels. It is

useful for analyzing regions.
4-neighbors of p:
(x,y-1)

(x-1,y) p (x+1,y)
(x−1,y)
(x+1,y)
N4(p) = (x,y−1)
(x,y+1)
(x,y+1)

4-neighborhood relation considers only vertical and

horizontal neighbors.
Note: q  N4(p) implies p  N4(q)
Neighbors of a Pixel (cont.)

(x-1,y-1) (x,y-1) (x+1,y-1)

8-neighbors of p:

(x−1,y−1)
(x-1,y) p (x+1,y)
(x,y−1)
(x+1,y−1)
(x-1,y+1) (x,y+1) (x+1,y+1) (x−1,y)
N8(p) = (x+1,y)
(x−1,y+1)
(x,y+1)
(x+1,y+1)
8-neighborhood relation considers all neighbor pixels.
Neighbors of a Pixel (cont.)

(x-1,y-1) (x+1,y-1) Diagonal neighbors of p:

p
(x−1,y−1)
(x-1,y+1) (x+1,y+1) (x+1,y−1)
ND(p) = (x−1,y+1)
(x+1,y+1)

Diagonal -neighborhood relation considers only diagonal

neighbor pixels.
Connectivity

• Connectivity is adapted from neighborhood relation.

• Two pixels are connected if
•they are in the same class (i.e. the same color or the same
range of intensity) and
• they are neighbors of one another.

For p and q from the same class

 4-connectivity: p and q are 4-connected if q  N4(p)
 8-connectivity: p and q are 8-connected if q  N8(p)
 mixed-connectivity (m-connectivity):
p and q are m-connected if q  N4(p) or
q  ND(p) and N4(p)  N4(q) = 
Adjacency

A pixel p is adjacent to pixel q is they are connected.

Two image subsets S1 and S2 are adjacent if some pixel
in S1 is adjacent to some pixel in S2

S1
S2
We can define type of adjacency: 4-adjacency, 8-adjacency
or m-adjacency depending on type of connectivity.
multiple (ambiguous) 8-adjacency,
Path

A path from pixel p at (x,y) to pixel q at (s,t) is a sequence

of distinct pixels:
(x0,y0), (x1,y1), (x2,y2),…, (xn,yn)
such that
(x0,y0) = (x,y) and (xn,yn) = (s,t)
and
(xi,yi) is adjacent to (xi-1,yi-1), i = 1,…,n

q
p

We can define type of path: 4-path, 8-path or m-path

depending on type of adjacency.
Path (cont.)

8-path m-path
p p p

q q q

m-path from p to q
8-path from p to q
solves this ambiguity
results in some ambiguity
Distance

• For pixel p, q, and z with coordinates (x,y), (s,t) and (u,v),

• D is a distance function or metric if

D(p,q)  0 (D(p,q) = 0 if and only if p = q)

Euclidean distance
 D(p,z)  D(p,q) + D(q,z)
(2-norm)
D(p,q) = D(q,p) 2 2 5
Example: Euclidean distance 2 52 2
5 2 1 2 5
D ( p, q) = ( x − s) 2 + ( y − t) 2 2 1 0 1 2
e
5 2 1 2 5
2 2 5 2 52 2
Distance (cont.)

D4-distance (city-block distance) is defined as

D4 ( p, q) = x − s + y − t

2
2 1 2
2 1 0 1 2
2 1 2
2

Pixels with D4(p) = 1 is 4-neighbors of p.

Distance (cont.)

D8-distance (chessboard distance) is defined as

D8 ( p, q) = max( x − s , y − t )

2 2 2 2 2
2 1 1 1 2
2 1 0 1 2
2 1 1 1 2
2 2 2 2 2

Pixels with D8(p) = 1 is 8-neighbors of p.

Block-based Processing
Linear and Nonlinear Operations

H is said to be a linear operator if, for any two

images f and g and any two scalars a and b,