1.

Introduction to image processing

Image processing is a method to perform some operations on an image, in order to get an
enhanced image or to extract some useful information from it. It is a type of signal processing in
which input is an image and output may be image or characteristics/features associated with that
image. Nowadays, image processing is among rapidly growing technologies. It forms core
research area within engineering and computer science disciplines too.
Image processing basically includes the following three steps:

 Importing the image via image acquisition tools;

 Analysing and manipulating the image;
 Output in which result can be altered image or report that is based on image analysis.

There are two types of methods used for image processing namely, analogue and digital image
processing. Analogue image processing can be used for the hard copies like printouts and
photographs. Image analysts use various fundamentals of interpretation while using these visual
techniques. Digital image processing techniques help in manipulation of the digital images by
using computers. The three general phases that all types of data have to undergo while using
digital technique are pre-processing, enhancement, and display, information extraction.
In this lecture we will talk about a few fundamental definitions such as image, digital image, and
digital image processing. Different sources of digital images will be discussed and examples for
each source will be provided. The continuum from image processing to computer vision will be
covered in this lecture. Finally we will talk about image acquisition and different types of image
sensors.

Analog image processing

Analog image processing is done on analog signals. It includes processing on two dimensional
analog signals. In this type of processing, the images are manipulated by electrical means by
varying the electrical signal. The common example include is the television image.
Digital image processing has dominated over analog image processing with the passage of time
due its wider range of applications.

Digital image processing

The digital image processing deals with developing a digital system that performs operations on
an digital image.

How a digital image is formed

Since capturing an image from a camera is a physical process. The sunlight is used as a source
of energy. A sensor array is used for the acquisition of the image. So when the sunlight falls
upon the object, then the amount of light reflected by that object is sensed by the sensors, and a
continuous voltage signal is generated by the amount of sensed data. In order to create a digital
image , we need to convert this data into a digital form. This involves sampling and
quantization. (They are discussed later on). The result of sampling and quantization results in an
two dimensional array or matrix of numbers which are nothing but a digital image.
 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.

Phases Of Image Processing:

1.ACQUISITION– It could be as simple as being given an image which is in digital form. The
main work involves:
a) Scaling
b) Color conversion(RGB to Gray or vice-versa)
2.IMAGE ENHANCEMENT– It is amongst the simplest and most appealing in areas of Image
Processing it is also used to extract some hidden details from an image and is subjective.
3.IMAGE RESTORATION– It also deals with appealing of an image but it is
objective(Restoration is based on mathematical or probabilistic model or image degradation).
4.COLOR IMAGE PROCESSING– It deals with pseudocolor and full color image processing
color models are applicable to digital image processing.
5.WAVELETS AND MULTI-RESOLUTION PROCESSING– It is foundation of
representing images in various degrees.
6.IMAGE COMPRESSION-It involves in developing some functions to perform this
operation. It mainly deals with image size or resolution.
7.MORPHOLOGICAL PROCESSING-It deals with tools for extracting image components
that are useful in the representation & description of shape.
8.SEGMENTATION PROCEDURE-It includes partitioning an image into its constituent parts
or objects. Autonomous segmentation is the most difficult task in Image Processing.
9.REPRESENTATION & DESCRIPTION-It follows output of segmentation stage, choosing
a representation is only the part of solution for transforming raw data into processed data.
10.OBJECT DETECTION AND RECOGNITION-It is a process that assigns a label to an
object based on its descriptor.

2. Image preprocessing and Image Enhancement

The main aims of preprocessing and image enhancement are

 to obtain visually informative images, as well as

 to ease the subsequent signal processing and automated image evaluation steps.

Image pre-processing
Image pre-processing refers to operations done BEFORE a key processing step, such as:

 filtering
 color transforms
 sub-sampling/scaling
 histogram generation
 etc.

Pre-processing is a common name for operations with images at the lowest level of
abstraction — both input and output are intensity images. These iconic images are of the
same kind as the original data captured by the sensor, with an intensity image usually
represented by a matrix of image function values (brightness ) The aim of pre-processing is
an improvement of the image data that suppresses unwilling distortions or enhances some
image features important for further processing, although geometric transformations of
images (e.g. rotation, scaling, and translation) are also classified among pre-processing
methods. Since here similar techniques are used.

Image Enhancement

image enhancement refers to operations to improve the look of an image, such as:

 contrast enhancement
 Noise removal
 histogram equalization
 filtering
 Motion of blurring
 sharpening

a) Noise Removal: It is an operation to remove undesirable details from an image. This

detail gets attached to an image while clicking image or acquisition process. Noise may
be capturing device inability, due to environment particles, lack of experience of
machine/computer operator or some other reason.

b) Contrast enhancement: Contrast is related to the color and brightness terms. It is

basically improving the interpretability, sensing of information in images for human
viewers and providing `better' input for other automated image processing techniques.

c) Histogram equalization: The objective of this method is to make an image apparently

accepted for a specific application. One of the most appropriate contrast enhancement
methods is histogram equalization (HE). HE mechanism is to transform the gray levels of
an image to a uniform histogram based on the probability of occurring gray levels in an
input image. In general, by HE method it will flatten out the probability distribution of an
image and increase its dynamical range. However, the strength of HE depends on the
contrast of the original image. The lower the contrast, the more the strength is. Since its
simplicity make it easy to implement. It is usually applied in many areas including
texture synthesis, medical image processing and speech recognition.
 d) Filtering: Filter is used to remove the noise from the images. Noise is present in images
in the form of: A. White and black spots on image B. In ultrasound images with black
intensity There are different types of filters: average filter, mean and median filter etc.
The filter performs spatial processing to determine which pixels in an image have been
affected by noise. It classifies pixels as noise by comparing each pixel in the image to its
surrounding neighbor pixels. The size of the neighborhood is adjustable, as well as the
threshold for the comparison. A pixel that is different from a majority of its neighbors, as
well as being not structurally aligned with those pixels to which it is similar, is designated
as impulse noise. These noisy pixels are then replaced by the median value of the pixels
in the neighborhood that have passed the noise detection test.

e) Motion blurring: When a photograph is taken in low light conditions or of a fast moving
object, motion blur can cause significant degradation of the image. This is caused by the
movement of the object relative to the sensor in the camera during the time the shutter is
open.

Applications
1. Intelligent Transportation Systems – This technique can be used in Automatic number
plate recognition and Traffic sign recognition.

2. Remote Sensing – For this application, sensors capture the pictures of the earth’s surface
in remote sensing satellites or multi – spectral scanner which is mounted on an aircraft. These
pictures are processed by transmitting it to the Earth station. Techniques used to interpret the
objects and regions are used in flood control, city planning, resource mobilization, agricultural
production monitoring, etc.

3. Moving object tracking – This application enables to measure motion parameters and
acquire visual record of the moving object. The different types of approach to track an object are:
· Motion based tracking
· Recognition based tracking

4. Defense surveillance – Aerial surveillance methods are used to continuously keep an eye
on the land and oceans. This application is also used to locate the types and formation of naval
vessels of the ocean surface. The important duty is to divide the various objects present in the
water body part of the image. The different parameters such as length, breadth, area, perimeter,
compactness are set up to classify each of divided objects. It is important to recognize the
distribution of these objects in different directions that are east, west, north, south, northeast,
northwest, southeast and south west to explain all possible formations of the vessels. We can
interpret the entire oceanic scenario from the spatial distribution of these objects.

5. Biomedical Imaging techniques – For medical diagnosis, different types of imaging tools
such as X- ray, Ultrasound, computer aided tomography (CT) etc are used. The diagrams of X-
ray, MRI, and computer aided tomography (CT) are given below.
 Fig. 2: Representational Image Of X- ray, MRI, And Computer Aided Tomography (CT)

Some of the applications of Biomedical imaging applications are as follows:

· Heart disease identification– The important diagnostic features such as size of the heart and
its shape are required to know in order to classify the heart diseases. To improve the diagnosis of
heart diseases, image analysis techniques are employed to radiographic images.
· Lung disease identification – In X- rays, the regions that appear dark contain air while
region that appears lighter are solid tissues. Bones are more radio opaque than tissues. The ribs,
the heart, thoracic spine, and the diaphragm that separates the chest cavity from the abdominal
cavity are clearly seen on the X-ray film.
· Digital mammograms – This is used to detect the breast tumour. Mammograms can be
analyzed using Image processing techniques such as segmentation, shape analysis, contrast
enhancement, feature extraction, etc.

6. Automatic Visual Inspection System – This application improves the quality and
productivity of the product in the industries.
· Automatic inspection of incandescent lamp filaments – This involves examination of the
bulb manufacturing process. Due to no uniformity in the pitch of the wiring in the lamp, the
filament of the bulb gets fused within a short duration. In this application, a binary image slice of
the filament is created from which the silhouette of the filament is fabricated. Silhouettes are
analyzed to recognize the non uniformity in the pitch of the wiring in the lamp. This system is
being used by the General Electric Corporation.

· Automatic surface inspection systems – In metal industries it is essential to detect the flaws
on the surfaces. For instance, it is essential to detect any kind of aberration on the rolled metal
surface in the hot or cold rolling mills in a steel plant. Image processing techniques such as
texture identification, edge detection, fractal analysis etc are used for the detection.

· Faulty component identification – This application identifies the faulty components in

electronic or electromechanical systems. Higher amount of thermal energy is generated by these
faulty components. The Infra-red images are produced from the distribution of thermal energies
in the assembly. The faulty components can be identified by analyzing the Infra-red images.