Week-1 Module-3 Why Is Digital Image Processing Important

Digital image processing involves techniques to improve images for human interpretation and machine perception. It has a long history beginning in the 1920s with transmitting newspaper images via submarine cable. Major developments occurred in the 1960s with computer processing of images from space missions. Today it is widely used in applications like medical imaging, remote sensing, and astronomy. Key stages generally include image acquisition, enhancement, restoration, morphological processing, segmentation, object recognition, and compression.

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Week-1 Module-3 Why Is Digital Image Processing Important

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Digital Image Processing of Remote Sensing Data

Why is digital image processing important?

Dr. Arun K. Saraf,

Professor
Department of Earth Sciences

1
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
History of Digital Image Processing

Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)
Early 1920s: One of the first applications of digital
imaging was in the news-
paper industry
The Bartlane cable picture
transmission service Early digital image

Images were transferred by submarine cable between

London and New York
Pictures were coded for cable transfer and reconstructed
at the receiving end on a telegraph printer
History of DIP

Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)
Mid to late 1920s: Improvements to the Bartlane
system resulted in higher quality images
New reproduction
processes based
on photographic
techniques
Increased number
of tones in
reproduced images Improved
digital image Early 15 tone digital
image
History of DIP (cont)

Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)
1960s: Improvements in computing technology and the
onset of the space race led to a surge of work in digital
image processing
1964: Computers used to
improve the quality of
images of the moon taken
by the Ranger 7 probe
Such techniques were used
in other space missions A picture of the moon taken
including the Apollo landings by the Ranger 7 probe
minutes before landing
History of DIP (cont)
1980s - Today: The use of digital image processing
techniques has exploded and they are now used for all
kinds of tasks in all kinds of areas
Image enhancement/restoration
Artistic effects
Medical visualisation
Industrial inspection
Law enforcement
Human computer interfaces
Examples: Image Enhancement
One of the most common uses of DIP techniques: improve

Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)
quality, remove noise etc.
Examples: The Hubble Telescope

Launched in 1990 the Hubble

telescope can take images of
very distant objects
However, an incorrect mirror
made many of Hubbles
images useless
Image processing
techniques were
used to fix this
Examples: Remote Sensing
Digital image processing techniques are used extensively

Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)
to improve satellite imagery
Terrain classification
Meteorology
Examples: Remote Sensing (cont)

Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)
Night-Time Lights of the World
data set
Global inventory of human
settlement
Not hard to imagine the kind of
analysis that might be done
using this data
Key Stages in Digital Image Processing
Image Morphological
Restoration Processing

Image
Segmentation
Enhancement