[book REVIEW]
and matrix-based algebra, probability
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Mathematics of Digital Images: Creation,
Compression, Restoration, Recognition
by S.G. Hoggar, publsihed by Cambridge
University Press, 2006, ISBN-13: 978-
0-521-78029-2, 854 pages, hard-
bound. Reviewed by James E. Fowler
(fowler@ece.msstate.edu), Mississippi
State University.
T
he field of digital imag-
ing is vast and diverse.
At its foundations is a
body of mathematics,
equally as vast and
diverse, from which techniques and
algorithms are drawn as solutions to
problems arising in myriads of imaging
applications. S.G. Hoggar’s recent book,
Mathematics of Digital Images:
Creation, Compression, Restoration,
Recognition, covers the foundational
mathematics essential to many modern
image processing techniques and appli-
cations. At 854 pages, the book is
impressively comprehensive and nearly
encyclopedic in scope—just about every
conceivable mathematical concept relat-
ed to digital imaging is covered. The
text itself is divided into 18 chapters
arranged into six parts covering, respec-
tively, plane-based symmetries, vector-
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MSP.2008.924962
cessing—theory or applications—
theory, information theory, image trans-
formation, and B-spline curves. If it’s
mathematical and related to imaging,
it’s in there—from vector quantization
to the central limit theorem, from prin-
cipal component analysis to the chan-
nel-coding theorem, from entropy to
fractals, and from the discrete wavelet
transform to turbo codes.
Overall, the book is very nicely writ-
ten and presented. The mathematics
are rigorous, accurate, and accessible.
That said, it is important to note that
this is a book on mathematics, and not
ALTHOUGH FROM THE
BOOK’S TITLE ONE MIGHT
BE LED TO EXPECT A FOCUS
ON APPLICATIONS IN IMAGE
CREATION, COMPRESSION,
RESTORATION, AND
RECOGNITION, IT IS REALLY
THE MATHEMATICS THAT
DRIVE THE DISCOURSE HERE.
a book on image processing per se. Not
covered is fundamental theory typically
present in image processing texts such
as image sampling and acquisition,
color spaces and transformations, and
elements of human visual perception.
Nor is the book truly “about” digital
imaging applications. Although from
the book’s title one might be led to
expect a focus on applications in image
creation, compression, restoration, and
recognition, it is really the mathemat-
ics that drive the discourse here. True,
these applications are covered, but only
to the point that they serve as exam-
ples to illustrate the mathematics.
Readers concerned with image pro-
IEEE SIGNAL PROCESSING MAGAZINE [128] JULY 2008
would probably be better served by one
of a number of well-known texts on
that subject, such as A.K. Jain’s classic
Fundamentals of Digital Image
Processing or the recently revised third
edition of Digital Image Processing by
Gonzalez and Woods.
For example, Chapters 15 and 16
touch on image compression, and, as
can be expected, there is extensive
discussion therein on the mathemat-
ics of various image transforms (dis-
crete Fourier, cosine, wavelet, and
Karhunen-Loève). However, the cover-
age is relatively neglectful of the
issues of quantization and entropy
coding, which are crucial to state-
of-the-art compression performance
in modern algorithms. More impor-
tantly, however, the compression
coverage culminates in the original
JPEG standard and the FBI’s
Wavelet Scalar Quantization (WSQ)
standard for fingerprint-image
compression, stopping well short of
the current state of the art by at
least 10–15 years. No mention is
made of modern algorithms such as
those included in the JPEG 2000 stan-
dard. Rather, there are extensive discus-
sions on the Laplacian pyramid as well
as fractals and iterated function sys-
tems—nicely mathematical, indeed,
but somewhat dated from a practical
standpoint. Similarly, discussions on
image restoration end with Wiener fil-
tering and Bayesian techniques, while
more recent methods such as blind
image deconvolution, anisotropic diffu-
sion, and inpainting go untouched.
Coverage of image analysis likewise
stops at edge detection without consid-
ering morphological image processing
or boundary and region descriptors.
1053-5888/08/$25.00©2008IEEE
 There are some seemingly dead
ends to the text as well. For example,
Chapters 12 and 13 form a lengthy
overview of the field of information
theory, from entropy and Huffman cod-
ing all the way to error-correcting
codes and the channel-coding theorem.
While certainly some of these early
concepts are invoked later (e.g.,
entropy in the compression discussion
of Chapters 15 and 16), the latter
material in this information theory
overview seems to lead to nowhere
else in the text. Indeed, channel
capacity and error correction
appear out of place—one does not
typically apply, say, Reed-Solomon
codes directly to pixels, yet consid-
erations of joint source-channel
coding certainly go much beyond
the scope of the compression discus-
sion of Chapters 15 and 16.
In the end, these chapters embody
the primary difficulty of the text. The
preface suggests that the book is suit-
ed for use in both a course and self-
study. Yet, given the unique
mathematical focus, the book is
unlikely to find extensive classroom
use. For example, at 127 pages com-
bined, Chapters 12 and 13 are much
too lengthy and detailed to provide
information theory content for a typi-
cal course in, for instance, image pro-
cessing, machine vision, or image
compression. On the other hand, these
chapters are far too brief to be the
basis for a course in information theo-
ry by themselves. Similar conclusions
can be made for various other parts of
the text. The proposed self-study use
seems somewhat more realistic in that
certain sections of the text can be con-
sulted as needed to provide a thorough
introduction to certain areas of mathe-
matical theory in a more compact
form than a separate book in, say,
information theory, could provide.
Indeed, the introductory chapter pro-
vides several “roadmaps” through the
book that direct the self-studying read-
er across several chapters to some spe-
cial topics of interest—for example, a
IEEE SIGNAL PROCESSING MAGAZINE [129] JULY 2008
suggested path starts with complex
numbers in Chapter 8, follows with
the Fourier transform in Chapter 14
and convolution in Chapter 15, and
leads ultimately to the Wiener filter,
also in Chapter 15.
The presentation of the book is very
good. There are numerous illustrations-
both diagrams and imagery—through-
out the text that serve to illuminate key
THE BOOK SEEMS BEST
SUITED TO PLAY THE ROLE
OF A “BRIDGE” FROM
MATHEMATICAL THEORY
TO THE FIELD OF SIGNAL
PROCESSING.
issues. Finally, each chapter contains a
number of exercises at the end; both
pencil-and-paper as well as implemen-
tation-based exercises are included. The
latter—like the pseudocode algorithms
found throughout the text—would
seemingly be straightforward to carry
out in a high-level environment like
MATLAB. While there is an accompany-
ing Web site at http://www.maths.gla.
ac.uk/~sgh/ (the text mentions the Web
site, but does not appear to give its
URL), this Web site is exceedingly spar-
tan, consisting of little more than PDF
files of solutions to selected end-of-
chapter exercises. However, a very large
percentage of the exercises are repre-
sented in the solutions. Overall, the
end-of-chapter exercises coupled
with the numerous Web-based solu-
tions seem particularly well-suited to
the self-study student. However, it
seems likely that such self-study use
would be confined to only certain
parts of the text, leaving much of the
book untouched.
In either the case of course or self-
study use, the book seems best suited
to play the role of a “bridge” from
mathematical theory to the field of sig-
nal processing; that is, the reader who
will derive the most benefit from the
text is likely to be a mathematician or
other type of scientist with a strong
mathematical background seeking to
learn the mathematical tools specific
to the digital imaging realm. Such a
reader could conveniently enter the
image processing field through the
mathematics covered in this book and
be in a position to subsequently pick
up the state of the art in the practice of
one or more applications elsewhere.
The book is less likely to be useful
to the signal or image processing
student who would likely find it to
be simply too mathematical. On the
other hand, seasoned image pro-
cessing practitioners might find the
text to be a useful reference simply
for its vast and comprehensive con-
tent, although it can be somewhat
difficult to quickly find certain top-
ics; i.e., prominent concepts do not
always show up explicitly in the table
of contents, and it can be difficult to
guess in which section they appear
without resorting to the index at the
end of the book.
The mathematical focus of the book
is somewhat unique among works on
digital imagery, although a somewhat
similar text is Foundations of Image
Science by Barrett and Myers (Wiley-
Interscience, 2003). However, this lat-
ter text—surprisingly even more
lengthy and comprehensive than
Hoggar’s book—is rather focused on
physical aspects of imagery and appli-
cations to radiology and medical imag-
ing. With its coverage of application
areas such as compression, restoration,
and recognition, Hoggar’s book
appears more suitable to the signal and
image processing audience.
Overall, Mathematics of Digital
Images: Creation, Compression,
Restoration, Recognition is a well-
written book that may find a niche for
its unique mathematical focus by aid-
ing mathematicians to converse with
signal and image processing practi-
tioners. It is also likely to find some
use as a reference for the latter, partic-
ularly for those engaged in mathemat-
ically based research. [SP]