Dept.

of EEE, KUET
EE 4235
Digital Image Processing:
Introduction

Mohiuddin Ahmad
Dept. of EEE, KUET
Date: 21.08.2023
Course Website: http://kuet.ac.bd/eee/ahmad/
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Introduction

“One picture is worth more than ten

thousand words”

The phrase "One picture is worth more than ten thousand words" means that
a single image can convey complex ideas or emotions more effectively than a
large amount of written or spoken description.
In other words, a well-chosen picture has the power to communicate a
message or convey meaning more quickly and directly than using a lot of
words.
It emphasizes the idea that visual representation can often be more impactful
and easily understood than lengthy explanations.
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Introduction
Lectures:
– Sunday 9:15 - 10:30

Web Site: Slides are available

– Class Code: np6lday
– Link:
https://classroom.google.com/c/NjE4NzM4N
DE5MzU0?cjc=np6lday
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Contents
This lecture will cover:
– Image representation
– What is an image?
– What is digital image?
– What is digital image processing?
– History of digital image processing
– State of the art examples of digital image
processing
– Key stages in digital image processing
– Applications of digital image processing
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References
1. Digital Image Processing by Rafael C Gonzalez and Richard E Woods -
Prentice-Hall, Inc. Division of Simon and Schuster One Lake Street Upper
Saddle River, NJ United States
2. Image Processing, Analysis and Machine Vision by Milan Sonka and Vaclav
Hlavac and Roger Boyle
3. Fundamentals of Digital Image Processing by Anil K Jain
4. Digital Image Processing: PIKS Scientific Inside by William K Pratt
5. Digital Image Processing by Sanjay M Shah Munesh Chandra Trivedi
6. Digital Image Processing by Jayaraman S
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Introduction
What is Digital Image Processing?

Digital Image

A digital image is a visual representation of an object, scene, or concept that

is captured and stored in a digital format. It consists of a grid of small units
called pixels, each of which holds a specific color value. These pixels
collectively form the image when displayed on a screen or printed on paper.

Example: A photograph taken with a digital camera is a common example of a

digital image. In this case, the photograph is converted into a digital format
by breaking it down into a grid of pixels. Each pixel is assigned a color value
based on the colors present in the original scene. When you view the
photograph on a computer or a digital device, you are actually seeing the
arrangement of these pixels, which creates the visual representation of the
image.
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Introduction
What is Digital Image Processing?

Digital Image
— a two-dimensional function, f(x, y) where x and y are spatial
coordinates
The amplitude of f is called intensity or gray level or color level at
the point (x, y)

Digital Image Processing

— process digital images by means of computer, it covers low-,
mid-, and high-level processes
low-level: inputs and outputs are images
mid-level: outputs are attributes extracted from input images
high-level: an ensemble or collective of recognition of individual objects

Pixel
— the elements of a digital image (Picture Element)
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Image Representation
FIGURE 2.18
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

(a) Image plotted

as a surface.
(b) Image displayed
as a visual intensity
array. (c) Image
shown as a 2-D
numerical
array. (The
numbers 0, 0.5, and
1 represent black,
gray, and white,
respectively.)
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)
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Image Representation
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

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Image Representation
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

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Image Representation
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What is an image?
We can think of an image as a function, f, from R2 to R:
– f ( x, y ) gives the intensity at position (x, y)
– Realistically, we expect the image only to be defined over a
rectangle, with a finite range:
• f: [a, b]x[c, d] → [0,1]

A color image is just three functions pasted together. We

can write this as a “vector-valued” function:

 r ( x, y) 
f ( x, y) =  g ( x, y) 
 b( x, y) 
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The representation of an M×N numerical

array as

 f (0,0) f (0,1) ... f (0, N − 1) 

 f (1,0) f (1,1) ... f (1, N −1) 
f ( x, y) = 
 ... ... ... ... 
 
 f (M − 1,0) f (M − 1,1) ... f (M − 1, N − 1)
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The representation of an M×N numerical

array as

 a0,0 a0,1 ... a0, N −1 

 a a1,1 ... a1, N −1  
A=  1,0
 ... ... ... ... 
 
a
 M −1,0 aM −1,1 ... aM −1, N −1 
Clearly, aij = f(i, j) so Eqs. denote identical arrays.
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The representation of an M×N numerical

array in MATLAB

 f (1,1) f (1,2) ... f (1, N ) 

 f (2,1) f (2,2) ... f (2, N ) 
f ( x, y) = 
 ... ... ... ... 
 
 f (M ,1) f (M ,2) ... f (M , N ) 
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Discrete intensity interval [0, L-1], L=2k

The number b of bits required to store a M × N

digitized image

b=M×N×k
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Images as functions
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What is a Digital Image?
A digital image is a representation of a two-
dimensional image as a finite set of digital
values, called picture elements or pixels
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What is a Digital Image? (cont…)
Pixel values typically represent gray levels,
colours, heights, opacities etc
Remember digitization implies that a digital
image is an approximation of a real scene

1 pixel
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What is a Digital Image? (cont…)
Common image formats include:
– 1 sample per point (B&W or Grayscale)
– 3 samples per point (Red, Green, and Blue)
– 4 samples per point (Red, Green, Blue, and “Alpha”,
a.k.a. Opacity)

For most of this course we will focus on grey-scale

images
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Image processing
An image processing operation typically defines a
new image g in terms of an existing image f.
We can transform either the range of f.

Or the domain of f:

What kinds of operations can each perform?

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What is Digital Image Processing?
Digital image processing focuses on two
major tasks
– Improvement of pictorial information for
human interpretation
– Processing of image data for storage,
transmission and representation for
autonomous machine perception
Some argument about where image
processing ends and fields such as image
analysis and computer vision start
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What is DIP? (cont…)
The continuum from image processing to
computer vision can be broken up into low-,
mid- and high-level processes
Low Level Process Mid Level Process High Level Process
Input: Image Input: Image Input: Attributes
Output: Image Output: Attributes, Output: Understanding
features,
Examples: Noise Examples: Scene
characteristics
removal, image understanding,
sharpening Examples: Object autonomous navigation
recognition,
segmentation

In this course we will

stop here