Image processing

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Monochrome black/white image

Image processing is any form of signal processing for which the input is an image, such as photographs or frames of video; the output of image processing can be either an image or a set of characteristics or parameters related to the image. Most image-processing techniques involve treating the image as a two-dimensional signal and applying standard signal-processing techniques to it.

Image processing usually refers to digital image processing, but optical and analog image processing are also possible. This article is about general techniques that apply to all of them.

Typical operations

The red, green, and blue color channels of a photograph by Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii. The fourth image is a composite.

Among many other image processing operations are:

• Geometric transformations such as enlargement, reduction, and rotation
• Color corrections such as brightness and contrast adjustments, quantization, or conversion to a different color space
• Digital compositing or optical compositing (combination of two or more images). Used in filmmaking to make a "matte"
• Interpolation, demosaicing, and recovery of a full image from a raw image format using a Bayer filter pattern
• Image editing (e.g., to increase the quality of a digital image)
• Image differencing
• Image registration (alignment of two or more images)
• Image stabilization
• Image segmentation
• Extending dynamic range by combining differently exposed images
• 2-D object recognition with affine invariance

Applications

Further information: Imaging

• Computer vision
• Face detection
• Feature detection
• Lane departure warning system
• Non-photorealistic rendering
• Medical image processing
• Microscope image processing
• Morphological image processing
• Remote sensing

See also

• Photo manipulation
• List of computer vision conferences

References

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Further reading

• Image Processing and Analysis - Variational, PDE, Wavelet, and Stochastic Methods, by Tony F. Chan and Jackie (Jianhong) Shen, ISBN 089871589X (2005)
• John C. Russ (2006). The Image Processing Handbook. ISBN 0849372542. 
• Ian T. Young, Jan J. Gerbrands, Lucas J. Van Vliet (1995). Fundamentals of Image Processing. ISBN 90-75691-01-7. 
• Jean Serra (1982). Image Analysis and Mathematical Morphology. ISBN 0126372403. 
• Jean Serra (1988). Image Analysis and Mathematical Morphology Volume 2: Theoretical Advances. ISBN 0-12-637241-1. 

External links

• Lectures on Image Processing, by Alan Peters. Vanderbilt University. Updated 28 April 2008.