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Theresearchofdigitalimageprocessingtechnique1IntroductionInterestindigitalimageprocessingmethodsstemsfromtwoprincipalapplicationareas:improvementofpictorialinformationforhumaninterpretation;andprocessingofimagedataforstorage,transmission,andrepresentationforautonomousmachineperception.Thischapterhasseveralobjectives:(1)todefinethescopeofthefieldthatwecallimageprocessing;(2)togiveahistoricalperspectiveoftheoriginsofthisfield;(3)togiveanideaofthestateoftheartinimageprocessingbyexaminingsomeoftheprincipalareainwhichitisapplied;(4)todiscussbrieflytheprincipalapproachesusedindigitalimageprocessing;(5)togiveanoverviewofthecomponentscontainedinatypical,general-purposeimageprocessingsystem;and(6)toprovidedirectiontothebooksandotherliteraturewhereimageprocessingworknormallyisreporter.1.1WhatIsDigitalImageProcessing?Animagemaybedefinedasatwo-dimensionalfunction,f(x,y),wherexandyarespatial(plane)coordinates,andtheamplitudeoffatanypairofcoordinates(x,y)iscalledtheintensityorgrayleveloftheimageatthatpoint.Whenx,y,anddigitalimage.Thefieldofdigitalimageprocessingreferstoprocessingdigitalimagesbymeansofadigitalcomputer.Notethatadigitalimageiscomposedofafinitenumberofelements,eachofwhichhasaparticularlocationandvalue.Theseelementsarereferredtoaspictureelements,imageelements,pels,andpixels.Pixelisthetermmostwidelyusedtodenotetheelementsofadigitalimage.WeconsiderthesedefinitionsinmoreformaltermsinChapter2.Visionisthemostadvancedofoursenses,soitisnotsurprisingthatimagesplaythesinglemostimportantroleinhumanperception.However,unlikehumanwhoarelimitedtothevisualbandoftheelectromagnetic(EM)spectrum,imagingmachinescoveralmosttheentireEMspectrum,rangingfromgammatoradiowaves.Theycanoperateonimagesgeneratedbysourcesthathumanarenotaccustomedtoassociatingwithimage.Theseincludeultrasound,electronmicroscopy,andcomputer-generatedimages.Thus,digitalimageprocessingencompassesawideandvariedfieldofapplication.Thereisnogeneralagreementamongauthorsregardingwhereimageprocessingstopsandotherrelatedareas,suchasimageanalysisandcomputervision,start.Sometimesadistinctionismadebydefiningimageprocessingasadisciplineinwhichboththeinputandoutputofaprocessareimages.Webelievethistobealimitingandsomewhatartificialboundary.Forexample,underthisdefinition,eventhetrivialtaskofcomputingtheaverageintensityofanimage(whichyieldsasinglenumber)wouldnotbeconsideredanimageprocessingoperation.Ontheotherhand,therearefieldssuchascomputervisionwhoseultimategoalistousecomputertoemulatehumanvision,includinglearningandbeingabletomakeinferencesandtakeactionsbasedonvisualinputs.Thisareaitselfisabranchofartificialintelligence(AI)whoseobjectiveistoemulatehumanintelligence.ThisfieldofAIisinitsearlieststagesofinfancyintermsofdevelopment,withprogresshavingbeenmuchslowerthanoriginallyanticipated.Theareaofimageanalysis(alsocalledimageunderstanding)isinbetweenimageprocessingandcomputervision.Therearenoclear-cutboundariesinthecontinuumfromimageprocessingatoneendtocomputervisionattheother.However,oneusefulparadigmistoconsiderthreetypesofcomputerizedprocessesisthiscontinuum:low-,mid-,andhigh-everprocesses.Low-levelprocessesinvolveprimitiveoperationsuchasimagepreprocessingtoreducenoise,contrastenhancement,andimagesharpening.Alow-levelprocessischaracterizedbythefactthatbothitsinputandoutputareimages.Mid-levelprocessingonimagesinvolvestaskssuchassegmentation(partitioninganimageintoregionsorobjects),descriptionofthoseobjectstoreducethemtoaformsuitableforcomputerprocessing,andclassification(recognition)ofindividualobject.Amid-levelprocessischaracterizedbythefactthatitsinputsgenerallyareimages,butitsoutputisattributesextractedfromthoseimages(e.g.,edgescontours,andtheidentityofindividualobject).Finally,higher-levelprocessinginvolves“makingsense”ofanensembleofrecognizedobjects,asinimageanalysis,and,atthefarendofthecontinuum,performingthecognitivefunctionnormallyassociatedwithvision.Basedontheprecedingcomments,weseethatalogicalplaceofoverlapbetweenimageprocessingandimageanalysisistheareaofrecognitionofindividualregionsorobjectsinanimage.Thus,whatwecallinthisbookdigitalimageprocessingencompassesprocesseswhoseinputsandoutputsareimagesand,inaddition,encompassesprocessesthatextractattributesfromimages,uptoandincludingtherecognitionofindividualobjects.Asasimpleillustrationtoclarifytheseconcepts,considertheareaofautomatedanalysisoftext.Theprocessesofacquiringanimageoftheareacontainingthetext.Preprocessingthatimages,extracting(segmenting)theindividualcharacters,describingthecharactersinaformsuitableforcomputerprocessing,andrecognizingthoseindividualcharactersareinthescopeofwhatwecalldigitalimageprocessinginthisbook.Makingsenseofthecontentofthepagemaybeviewedasbeinginthedomainofimageanalysisandevencomputervision,dependingonthelevelofcomplexityimpliedbythestatement“makingcense.”Aswillbecomeevidentshortly,digitalimageprocessing,aswehavedefinedit,isusedsuccessfullyinabroadrangofareasofexceptionalsocialandeconomicvalue.Theconceptsdevelopedinthefollowingchaptersarethefoundationforthemethodsusedinthoseapplicatio