6.digital Image Processing
6.digital Image Processing
The term gray level is used often to refer to the intensity of monochrome images.
Color images are formed by a combination of individual 2-D images.
For example: The RGB color system, a color image consists of three (red, green and
blue) individual component images. For this reason many of the techniques developed for
monochrome images can be extended to color images by processing the three component
images individually.
An image may be continuous with respect to the x- and y- coordinates and also in
amplitude. Converting such an image to digital form requires that the coordinates, as well as
the amplitude, be digitized.
APPLICATIONS OF DIGITAL IMAGE PROCESSING
Since digital image processing has very wide applications and almost all of the technical
fields are impacted by DIP, we will just discuss some of the major applications of DIP.
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Digital image processing has a broad spectrum of applications, such as
Remote sensing via satellites and other spacecrafts
Image transmission and storage for business applications
Medical processing,
RADAR (Radio Detection and Ranging)
SONAR(Sound Navigation and Ranging) and
Acoustic image processing (The study of underwater sound is known as underwater
acoustics or hydro acoustics.)
Robotics and automated inspection of industrial
parts. Images acquired by satellites are useful in tracking of
Earth resources;
Geographical mapping;
Prediction of agricultural crops,
Urban growth and weather monitoring
Flood and fire control and many other environmental
applications. Space image applications include:
Recognition and analysis of objects contained in images obtained from deep
space-probe missions.
Image transmission and storage applications occur in broadcast television
Teleconferencing
Transmission of facsimile images(Printed documents and graphics) for office
automation
Communication over computer networks
Closed-circuit television based security monitoring systems and
In military
communications. Medical applications:
Processing of chest X- rays
Cineangiograms
Projection images of transaxial tomography and
Medical images that occur in radiology nuclear magnetic resonance(NMR)
Ultrasonic scanning
IMAGE PROCESSING TOOLBOX (IPT) is a collection of functions that extend the
capability of the MATLAB numeric computing environment. These functions, and the
Color image processing: It is an area that is been gaining importance because of the use of
digital images over the internet. Color image processing deals with basically color models
and their implementation in image processing applications.
Wavelets and Multiresolution Processing: These are the foundation for representing image
in various degrees of resolution.
Compression: It deals with techniques reducing the storage required to save an image, or the
bandwidth required to transmit it over the network. It has to major approaches a) Lossless
Compression b) Lossy Compression
Morphological processing: It deals with tools for extracting image components that are
useful in the representation and description of shape and boundary of objects. It is majorly
used in automated inspection applications.
Thus the right side of the matrix represents a digital element, pixel or pel. The matrix can be
represented in the following form as well. The sampling process may be viewed as
partitioning the xy plane into a grid with the coordinates of the center of each grid being a
pair of elements from the Cartesian products Z2 which is the set of all ordered pair of
elements (Zi, Zj) with Zi and Zj being integers from Z. Hence f(x,y) is a digital image if gray
DIGITAL IMAGE PROCESSING Page 8
level (that is, a real number from the set of real number R) to each distinct pair of coordinates
(x,y). This functional assignment is the quantization process. If the gray levels are also
integers, Z replaces R, the and a digital image become a 2D function whose coordinates and
she amplitude value are integers. Due to processing storage and hardware consideration, the
number gray levels typically is an integer power of 2.
k
L=2
Then, the number, b, of bites required to store a digital image is B=M *N* k When M=N, the
2
equation become b=N *k
When an image can have 2k gray levels, it is referred to as “k- bit”. An image with 256
8
possible gray levels is called an “8- bit image” (256=2 ).
Fig: Array
sensor Image Acquisition using a Single sensor:
The components of a single sensor. Perhaps the most familiar sensor of this type is
the photodiode, which is constructed of silicon materials and whose output voltage waveform
is proportional to light. The use of a filter in front of a sensor improves selectivity. For
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example, a green (pass) filter in front of a light sensor favors light in the green band of the
color spectrum. As a consequence, the sensor output will be stronger for green light than for
other components in the visible spectrum.
In order to generate a 2-D image using a single sensor, there has to be relative displacements
in both the x- and y-directions between the sensor and the area to be imaged. Figure shows an
arrangement used in high-precision scanning, where a film negative is mounted onto a drum
whose mechanical rotation provides displacement in one dimension. The single sensor is
mounted on a lead screw that provides motion in the perpendicular direction. Since
mechanical motion can be controlled with high precision, this method is an inexpensive (but
slow) way to obtain high-resolution images. Other similar mechanical arrangements use a flat
bed, with the sensor moving in two linear directions. These types of mechanical digitizers
sometimes are referred to as microdensitometers.
Image Acquisition using a Sensor strips:
A geometry that is used much more frequently than single sensors consists of an in-line
arrangement of sensors in the form of a sensor strip, shows. The strip provides imaging
elements in one direction. Motion perpendicular to the strip provides imaging in the other
direction. This is the type of arrangement used in most flat bed scanners. Sensing devices
with 4000 or more in-line sensors are possible. In-line sensors are used routinely in airborne
imaging applications, in which the imaging system is mounted on an aircraft that flies at a
constant altitude and speed over the geographical area to be imaged. One dimensional
imaging sensor strips that respond to various bands of the electromagnetic spectrum are
mounted perpendicular to the direction of flight. The imaging strip gives one line of an image
at a time, and the motion of the strip completes the other dimension of a two-dimensional
image. Lenses or other focusing schemes are used to project area to be scanned onto the
sensors. Sensor strips mounted in a ring configuration are used in medical and industrial
imaging to obtain cross-sectional (“slice”) images of 3-D objects.
This set of pixels, called the 4-neighbors or p, is denoted by N4(p). Each pixel is one
unit distance from (x,y) and some of the neighbors of p lie outside the digital image if (x,y) is
on the border of the image. The four diagonal neighbors of p have coordinates and are
denoted by ND (p).
(x+1, y+1), (x+1, y-1), (x-1, y+1), (x-1, y-1)
As before, some of the points in ND (p) and N8 (p) fall outside the image if (x,y) is on
the border of the image.
ADJACENCY AND CONNECTIVITY
Let v be the set of gray –level values used to define adjacency, in a binary image, v={1}.
In a gray-scale image, the idea is the same, but V typically contains more elements, for
example, V = {180, 181, 182, …, 200}.
If the possible intensity values 0 – 255, V set can be any subset of these 256
values. if we are reference to adjacency of pixel with value.
Three types of adjacency
4- Adjacency – two pixel P and Q with value from V are 4 –adjacency if A is in the
set N4(P)
8- Adjacency – two pixel P and Q with value from V are 8 –adjacency if A is in the
set N8(P)
M-adjacency –two pixel P and Q with value from V are m – adjacency if (i) Q is in
N4(p) or (ii) Q is in ND(q) and the set N4(p) ∩ N4(q) has no pixel whose values are
from V.
• Mixed adjacency is a modification of 8-adjacency. It is introduced to eliminate the
ambiguities that often arise when 8-adjacency is used.
• For example:
Fig:1.8 (a) Arrangement of pixels; (b) pixels that are 8-adjacent(shown dashed) to the
center pixel; (c) m-adjacency.
In figure (b) the paths between the top right and bottom right pixels are 8-paths. And
the path between the same 2 pixels in figure (c) is m-path
Connectivity:
• Let S represent a subset of pixels in an image, two pixels p and q are said to be
connected in S if there exists a path between them consisting entirely of pixels in S.
Pixels having a distance less than or equal to some value r from (x,y) are the points
contained in a disk of radius „ r „centered at (x,y)
• The D4 distance (also called city-block distance) between p and q is defined as:
D4 (p,q) = | x – s | + | y – t |
Example:
The pixels with distance D4 ≤ 2 from (x,y) form the following contours of
constant distance.
The pixels with D4 = 1 are the 4-neighbors of (x,y)
• The D8 distance (also called chessboard distance) between p and q is defined as:
D8 (p,q) = max(| x – s |,| y – t |)
Pixels having a D8 distance from (x,y), less than or equal to some value r form a
square Centered at (x,y).
Example:
D8 distance ≤ 2 from (x,y) form the following contours of constant distance.
• Dm distance:
It is defined as the shortest m-path between the points.
Case2: If p1 =1 and p3 = 0
now, p1 and p will no longer be adjacent (see m-adjacency definition)
then, the length of the shortest
path will be 3 (p, p1, p2, p4)
Case3: If p1 =0 and p3 = 1
The same applies here, and the shortest –m-path will be 3 (p, p2, p3, p4)
IMAGE TRANSFORMS:
2-D FFT:
The array formed by the inverse Walsh matrix is identical to the one formed by the forward
Walsh matrix apart from a multiplicative factor N.
2-D Walsh Transform
We define now the 2-D Walsh transform as a straightforward extension of the 1-D transform:
We define now the Inverse 2-D Hadamard transform. It is identical to the forward 2-D
Hadamard transform.
The general equation for a 2D (N by M image) DCT is defined by the following equation:
Image enhancement approaches fall into two broad categories: spatial domain
methods and frequency domain methods. The term spatial domain refers to the image plane
itself, and approaches in this category are based on direct manipulation of pixels in an image.
Frequency domain processing techniques are based on modifying the Fourier
transform of an image. Enhancing an image provides better contrast and a more detailed image as
compare to non enhanced image. Image enhancement has very good applications. It is used to
enhance medical images, images captured in remote sensing, images from satellite e.t.c. As indicated
previously, the term spatial domain refers to the aggregate of pixels composing an image.
Spatial domain methods are procedures that operate directly on these pixels. Spatial domain
processes will be denoted by the expression.
g(x,y) = T[f(x,y)]
where f(x, y) is the input image, g(x, y) is the processed image, and T is an operator
on f, defined over some neighborhood of (x, y). The principal approach in defining a
neighborhood about a point (x, y) is to use a square or rectangular subimage area centered at
(x, y), as Fig. 2.1 shows. The center of the subimage is moved from pixel to pixel starting,
say, at the top left corner. The operator T is applied at each location (x, y) to yield the output,
g, at that location. The process utilizes only the pixels in the area of the image spanned by the
neighborhood.
Negative
nth root
Log
nth power
Fig. Some basic gray-level transformation functions used for image enhancement.
s = (L – 1) – r
since the input image of Einstein is an 8 bpp image, so the number of levels in this image are
256. Putting 256 in the equation, we get this
s = 255 – r
So each value is subtracted by 255 and the result image has been shown above. So what
happens is that, the lighter pixels become dark and the darker picture becomes light. And it
results in image negative.
It has been shown in the graph below.
CORRECTING GAMMA:
s=crγ
s=cr (1/2.5)
The same image but with different gamma values has been shown here.
Piecewise-Linear Transformation Functions:
A complementary approach to the methods discussed in the previous three sections is
to use piecewise linear functions. The principal advantage of piecewise linear functions over
the types of functions we have discussed thus far is that the form of piecewise functions can
be arbitrarily complex.
The principal disadvantage of piecewise functions is that their specification requires
considerably more user input.
Contrast stretching: One of the simplest piecewise linear functions is a contrast-stretching
Fig. x Contrast stretching. (a) Form of transformation function. (b) A low-contrast stretching.
(c) Result of contrast stretching. (d) Result of thresholding (original image courtesy of
Dr.Roger Heady, Research School of Biological Sciences, Australian National University
Canberra Australia.
Figure x(b) shows an 8-bit image with low contrast. Fig. x(c) shows the result of contrast
stretching, obtained by setting (r1, s1 )=(rmin, 0) and (r2, s2)=(r max,L-1) where rmin and rmax
denote the minimum and maximum gray levels in the image, respectively.Thus, the
transformation function stretched the levels linearly from their original range to the full range
Fig. y (a)This transformation highlights range [A,B] of gray levels and reduces all others to a
constant level (b) This transformation highlights range [A,B] but preserves all other levels.
(c) An image . (d) Result of using the transformation in (a).
BIT-PLANE SLICING:
Instead of highlighting gray-level ranges, highlighting the contribution made to total
image appearance by specific bits might be desired. Suppose that each pixel in an image is
represented by 8 bits. Imagine that the image is composed of eight 1-bit planes, ranging from
bit-plane 0 for the least significant bit to bit plane 7 for the most significant bit. In terms of 8-
In terms of bit-plane extraction for an 8-bit image, it is not difficult to show that the
(binary) image for bit-plane 7 can be obtained by processing the input image with a
thresholding gray-level transformation function that (1) maps all levels in the image between
0 and 127 to one level (for example, 0); and (2) maps all levels between 129 and 255 to
another (for example, 255).The binary image for bit-plane 7 in Fig. 3.14 was obtained in just
this manner. It is left as an exercise
(Problem 3.3) to obtain the gray-level transformation functions that would yield the other bit
planes.
Histogram Processing:
The histogram of a digital image with gray levels in the range [0, L-1] is a discrete
function of the form
H(rk)=nk
where rk is the kth gray level and nk is the number of pixels in the image having the
level rk.. A normalized histogram is given by the equation
p(rk)=nk/n for k=0,1,2,…..,L-1
P(rk) gives the estimate of the probability of occurrence of gray level rk.
The sum of all components of a normalized histogram is equal to 1.
The histogram plots are simple plots of H(rk)=nk versus rk.
Histogram Equalization:
Histogram equalization is a common technique for enhancing the appearance of images.
Suppose we have an image which is predominantly dark. Then its histogram would be
The transformation function is assumed to fulfill two condition T(r) is single valued and
monotonically increasing in the internal 0<T(r)<1 for 0<r<1.The transformation
function should be single valued so that the inverse transformations should exist.
Monotonically increasing condition preserves the increasing order from black to white
in the output image. The second conditions guarantee that the output gray levels will be
in the same range as the input levels. The gray levels of the image may be viewed as
random variables in the interval [0.1]. The most fundamental descriptor of a random
variable is its probability density function (PDF) Pr(r) and Ps(s) denote the probability
density functions of random variables r and s respectively. Basic results from an
elementary probability theory states that if Pr(r) and Tr are known and T-1(s) satisfies
conditions (a), then the probability density function Ps(s) of the transformed variable is
given by the formula
Where as P and Q are the padded sizes from the basic equations
Wraparound error in their circular convolution can be avoided by padding these
functions with zeros,
VISUALIZATION: IDEAL LOW PASS FILTER:
Aa shown in fig.below
Fig: ideal low pass filter 3-D view and 2-D view and line graph.
Fig: (a) Test patter of size 688x688 pixels (b) its Fourier spectrum
Fig: (a) original image, (b)-(f) Results of filtering using ILPFs with cutoff frequencies
set at radii values 10, 30, 60, 160 and 460, as shown in fig.2.2.2(b). The power removed by
these filters was 13, 6.9, 4.3, 2.2 and 0.8% of the total, respectively.
Transfer function does not have sharp discontinuity establishing cutoff between
passed and filtered frequencies.
Cut off frequency D0 defines point at which H(u,v) = 0.5
Fig. (a) perspective plot of a Butterworth lowpass-filter transfer function. (b) Filter
displayed as an image. (c)Filter radial cross sections of order 1 through 4.
Unlike the ILPF, the BLPF transfer function does not have a sharp discontinuity that
gives a clear cutoff between passed and filtered frequencies.
BUTTERWORTH LOW-PASS FILTERS OF DIFFEREN T FREQUENCIES:
Fig. (a) Original image.(b)-(f) Results of filtering using BLPFs of order 2, with cutoff
frequencies at the radii
Fig. (a) Perspective plot of a GLPF transfer function. (b) Filter displayed as an image.
(c). Filter radial cross sections for various values of D0
Fig.(a) Original image. (b)-(f) Results of filtering using GLPFs with cutoff
frequencies at the radii shown in fig.2.2.2. compare with fig.2.2.3 and fig.2.2.6
Fig: Top row: Perspective plot, image representation, and cross section of a typical
ideal high-pass filter. Middle and bottom rows: The same sequence for typical butter-worth
and Gaussian high-pass filters.
IDEAL HIGH-PASS FILTER:
A 2-D ideal high-pass filter (IHPF) is defined as
H (u,v) = 0, if D(u,v) ≤ D0
1, if D(u,v) ˃ D0
Fig.. Spatial representation of typical (a) ideal (b) Butter-worth and (c) Gaussian
frequency domain high-pass filters, and corresponding intensity profiles through their centers.
We can expect IHPFs to have the same ringing properties as ILPFs. This is
demonstrated clearly in Fig.. which consists of various IHPF results using the original image
in Fig.(a) with D0 set to 30, 60,and 160 pixels, respectively. The ringing in Fig. (a) is so
severe that it produced distorted, thickened object boundaries (e.g.,look at the large letter “a”
). Edges of the top three circles do not show well because they are not as strong as the other
edges in the image (the intensity of these three objects is much closer to the background
intensity, giving discontinuities of smaller magnitude).
FILTERED RESULTS: IHPF:
Fig.. Results of high-pass filtering the image in Fig.(a) using an IHPF with D0 = 30,
60, and 160.
Where D(u,v) is given by Eq.(3). This expression follows directly from Eqs.(3) and (6). The
middle row of Fig.2.2.11. shows an image and cross section of the BHPF function.
Butter-worth high-pass filter to behave smoother than IHPFs. Fig.2.2.14.shows the
performance of a BHPF of order 2 and with D0 set to the same values as in Fig.2.2.13. The
boundaries are much less distorted than in Fig.2.2.13. even for the smallest value of cutoff
frequency.
FILTERED RESULTS: BHPF:
Fig. Results of high-pass filtering the image in Fig.2.2.2(a) using a BHPF of order 2
with D0 = 30, 60, and 160 corresponding to the circles in Fig.2.2.2(b). These results are much
smoother than those obtained with an IHPF.
GAUSSIAN HIGH-PASS FILTERS:
The transfer function of the Gaussian high-pass filter(GHPF) with cutoff frequency
locus at a distance D0 from the center of the frequency rectangle is given by
Fig. Results of high-pass filtering the image in fig.(a) using a GHPF with D0 = 30, 60
and 160, corresponding to the circles in Fig.(b).