Sampling (Section 4.

3)
CS474/674 Prof. Bebis

Sampling

How many samples should we obtain to minimize

information loss?
Hint: take enough samples to allow reconstructing the
continuous image from its samples.

Example

Very few samples; sampled signal

looks like a sinusoidal of a lower
frequency !

Definition: band-limited functions

A function whose spectrum is of finite duration
max
frequency

Are all functions band-limited? No!

Properties of band-limited functions

Band-limited functions have infinite duration in the
spatial domain.

Functions with finite duration in the spatial domain

have infinite duration in the frequency domain.

Sampling a 1D function
Multiply f(x) with s(x) (i.e., train of impulses)

sampled f(x)

Question: what is the DFT of f(x) s(x)?

Hint: use convolution theorem!

Sampling a 1D function (contd)

Suppose f(x)

F(u)

What is the DFT of s(x)?

Sampling a 1D function (contd)

1
x

1
x

So:

1
x

1
x

Sampling a 2D function (contd)

2D train of impulses
s(x,y)

x
y

Sampling a 2D function (contd)

DFT of 2D discrete function (i.e., image)

f(x,y)s(x,y)

F(u,v)*S(u,v)

Reconstructing f(x) from its samples

Need to isolate a single period:
Multiply by a window G(u)

Reconstructing f(x) from its samples (contd)

Then, take the inverse FT:

What is the effect of x?

Large x (i.e., few samples) results to overlapping
periods!

Effect of x (contd)
But, if the periods overlap, we cannot anymore isolate
a single period aliasing!

What is the effect of x? (contd)

Smaller x (i.e., more samples) alleviates aliasing!

What is the effect of x? (contd)

2D case

u
vmax

umax
v

Example
Suppose that we have an imaging system where the
number of samples it can take is fixed at 96 x 96
pixels.
Suppose we use this system to digitize checkerboard
patterns.
Such a system can resolve patterns that are up to 96 x
96 squares (i.e., 1 x 1 pixel squares).
What happens when squares are less than 1 x 1 pixels?

Example (contd)

Example (contd)
square size:

16 x 16

6x6

(same as
12 x 12
squares)
square size:

0.9174 x 0.9174

0.4798 x 0.4798

How should we choose x?

The center of the overlapped region is at

How to choose x? (contd)

Choose x as follows:

where W is the max frequency of f(x)

Practical Issues
Band-limited functions have infinite duration in the
time domain.
But, we can only sample a function over a finite
interval!

Practical Issues (contd)

We would need to obtain a finite set of samples
by multiplying with a box function:
[s(x)f(x)]h(x)

Practical Issues (contd)

This is equivalent to convolution in the frequency domain!

[s(x)f(x)]h(x) [F(u)*S(u)] * H(u)

Practical Issues (contd)

*
instead of this!

How does this affect things in practice?

Even if the Nyquist criterion is satisfied, recovering a
function that has been sampled in a finite region is in
general impossible!
Special case: periodic functions
If f(x) is periodic, then a single period can be isolated
assuming that the Nyquist theorem is satisfied!
e.g., sin/cos functions

Anti-aliasing
In practice, aliasing in almost inevitable!
The effect of aliasing can be reduced by smoothing
the input signal to attenuate its higher frequencies.
This has to be done before the function is sampled.
Many commercial cameras have true anti-aliasing filtering
built in the lens of the sensor itself.
Most commercial software have a feature called antialiasing which is related to blurring the image to reduce
aliasing artifacts (i.e., not true anti-aliasing)

Example
50% less samples

3 x 3 blurring and
50% less samples