Digital Image Processing CPE3643

Lecture 2:
Digital Image Fundamentals and
Image Acquisition

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Image Acquisition

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 Image description

f (x,y): intensity/brightness of the image at spatial coordinates (x,y)

0< f (x,y)<∞ and determined by 2 factors:

illumination component i(x,y): amount of source light incident
reflectance component r(x,y): amount of light reflected by objects

f (x,y) = i(x,y) r(x,y)

where
0< i(x,y)<∞: determined by the light source
0< r(x,y)<1: determined by the characteristics of objects

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Sampling and Quantization

quantization

sampling sampling
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 Sampling and Quantization
Sampling: Digitization of the spatial coordinates (x,y)
Quantization: Digitization in amplitude (also called gray-
level quantization)

8 bit quantization: 28 = 256 gray levels (0: black, 255: white)

Binary (1 bit quantization): 2 gray levels (0: black, 1: white)

Commonly used number of samples (resolution)

Digital still cameras: 640x480, 1024x1024, 4064 x 2704 so on
Digital video cameras: 640x480 at 30 frames/second
1920x1080 at 60 f/s (HDTV)

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Sampling and Quantization

An M x N digital image is expressed as

Columns
 f (0,0) f (0,1) . . . f (0, N − 1) 
 f (1,0) f (1,1) . . . f (1, N − 1) 
Rows


 . . . . . . 
 
 . . . . . . 
 . . . . . . 
 
 f ( M − 1,0) f ( M − 1,1) . . . f ( M − 1, N − 1)

N : No of Columns
M : No of Rows

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 Digital Image
a f(x, y)

bc
FIGURE 2.18
a. Image plotted as a
surface.
b. Image displayed
as a visual y
intensity array. x

c. Image shown as a
Origin
2-D numerical
y
array. (The 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0
numbers 0, .5, and .5 .5 .5
0 0 .5 .5
1 represent black, 0 0 .5
0 111
1
gray, and white,
1 .5
respectively.)

[DIP by Gonzalez] x
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Digital Images

Digital images are 2D arrays (matrices) of numbers:

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 Digital Image

a bc
FIGURE 2.25 (a) Image with a low level of detail. (b) Image with a medium level of detail. (c)
Image with a relatively large amount of detail. (Image (b) courtesy of the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology.)

[DIP by Gonzalez]

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Sampling

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 Sampling

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Effect of Sampling and Quantization

250 x 210 samples 125 x 105 samples 50 x 42 samples 25 x 21 samples

256 gray levels

16 gray levels 8 gray levels 4 gray levels Binary image

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 RGB (color) Images

Red + Blue + Green

Red Green Blue

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Image acquisition

Single imaging sensor

Line sensor

Array sensor

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 Image acquisition

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Image acquisition

Image acquisition through

linear sensor strip

Image acquisition through

circular sensor strip

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 Digital Camera Technologies
▪ CCD (Charge Coupled Device)
– Capacitive device
– Proper mechanism for charge
transfer
▪ CMOS (Complementary
magnetic oxide)
– Fabricated in standard
semiconductor production line
– Lower power consumption A
CCD: 2–5 W, CMOS: 20–50 mW
▪ Foveon X3
– a chip of transparent quartz
containing 3 layers of CMOS

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Digital Camera Technologies

CCD Array Cameras

▪ Consists of sensor elements/ photo detectors (active devices)
and charge storage devices also called charge buckets
▪ Every element in the array is linked (charge coupled) to other
element.
▪ Charges are transferred serially out of the array through
shifting charges from one element to the other.

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 Digital Camera Technologies
CCD Array Cameras

Frame Transfer
Architecture

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Digital Camera Technologies

CCD Array Cameras

Interline Transfer
Architecture

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 Digital Camera Technologies

CMOS Array Cameras

Standard semiconductor
production line
Active pixel architecture
Photo-detector and amplifier
are both fabricated inside
each pixel.

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Digital camera technologies comparison

CCD (Charge Coupled Device) CMOS (Complementary Metal
–Specialized fabrication Oxide Semiconductor)
techniques are used so –Cheaper technology
expensive technology –Smaller size
–Larger size –Low power consumption
–Higher power consumption –Readout for selective area of an
because of the capacitive image is possible
architecture –Amplifier and additional
–Always have to read out the circuitry can be fabricated
whole image inside each pixel.
–Resolution is limited by –Higher resolution possible
sensor elements size –Stronger noise due to higher
–Less on-chip circuitry so dark currents because of more
lesser dark currents and on-chip circuitry
noise
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 Acquisition of color images
Single sensor assembly
For still scenes
Three sensors
with prisms

Sensor arrays
a. Stripe filter pattern
b. Bayers filter pattern

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Acquisition of color images

▪ Fabrication of CMOS colored sensors

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 Foveon X3 imager
▪ A recent development in
photo-sensing technology
▪ This sensor uses 3 layers of
CMOS imagers.
▪ Each layer absorbs different
colours of light at different
depths.
▪ Single shot camera for three
colors
▪ Foveon has failed to make a
serious impact on the
market.
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Scanning Schemes
Interlaced scanning
(used in TV)
▪ Read/display all
even-numbered lines
(even field, half-size)
▪ Restart
▪ Read/display all odd-
numbered lines (odd
field, half-size) A typical Interlaced Scanning scheme
▪ Stitch the even and
odd fields together
and form a single,
full-size frame
▪ Output the full-size
frame
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 Interlaced scanning
When motion is present the interlaced scanning produces blurring
in the image

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Scanning Schemes
Progressive Scanning
▪ Immediately transfer an entire frame at once from
the image sensor without performing any line-
interlacing.
▪ Suitable for fast motion detection applications
▪ Incompatible with standard television systems.
▪ Popular in digital cameras (computer applications)

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 Various commercial sensor sizes

Aspect Width Height

"Name"
Ratio (mm) (mm)

1/3.6" 4:3 4.0 3.0

1/3.2" 4:3 4.5 3.4

1/3" 4:3 4.8 3.6

1/2.7" 4:3 5.3 4.0

1/2" 4:3 6.4 4.8

1/1.8" 4:3 7.2 5.3

2/3" 4:3 8.8 6.6

Relative size of various digital camera sensors

1" 4:3 12.8 9.6

4/3" 4:3 18.0 13.5

EOS 10D 3:2 22.0 15.0

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Basic relationships between pixels

Arrangement of pixels: 0 1 1
0 1 0
0 0 1
4 neighbours N4(p): 1
0 1 0
0

Diagonal neighbours ND(p): 0 1

1
0 1

8 neighbours N8 (p) = ND(p) U N4(p): 0 1 1

0 1 0
0 0 1

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 Basic relationships between Pixels
▪ Connectivity between pixels:
An important concept used in establishing boundaries of objects
and components of regions
Two pixels p and q are connected if
– They are adjacent in some sense
– If their gray levels satisfy a specified criterion of similarity

V: Set of gray level values used to define the criterion of

similarity

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Basic relationships between Pixels

4-connectivity:
If gray-level p , q  V, and q  N4(p)

8-connectivity:
If gray-level p , q  V, and q  N8(p)

m-connectivity (mixed connectivity):

Gray-level p , q  V, and q satisfies one of the following:
1) q  N4(p), 2) q  ND(p) and N4(p)∩ N4(q) has no values from V

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 Basic relationships between pixels

Mixed Connectivity:
Note: Mixed connectivity can eliminate the multiple path
connections that often occurs in 8-connectivity

Pixel 8-adjacent to the m-adjacency

arrangement center pixel

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Basic relationships between pixels

Path
Let coordinates of pixel p: (x, y), and of pixel q: (s, t)
A path from p to q is a sequence of distinct pixels with
coordinates: (x0, y0), (x1, y1), ......, (xn, yn) where
(x0, y0) = (x, y) & (xn, yn) = (s, t),
and (xi, yi) is adjacent to (xi-1, yi-1) 1 i  n
Regions
A set of pixels in an image where all component pixels are
connected
Boundary of a region
A set of pixels of a region R that have one of more neighbors
that are not in R

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 Distance Measures
Given coordinates of pixels p, q, and z: (x,y), (s,t), and (u,v)
Euclidean distance between p and q:
De ( p, q) = ( x − s ) 2 + ( y − t ) 2

City-block distance between p and q:

D4 ( p, q) = x − s + y − t

Chessboard distance between p and q:

D8 ( p, q) = max(| x − s |, | y − t |)

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Reading Assignment
▪ Chapters 1 and 2 of “Digital Image Processing” by
Gonzalez.
▪ Chapter 2 of “Digital Image Processing using MATLAB”
by Gonzalez.

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