Multimedia

Principles

Chapter 5

Image

TMH Chapter - 5 1
 Image
Image Types
ƒ The typical images that we usually come across are the pictures
that have been printed on paper or some other kinds of surfaces
like plastic, cloth, wood etc. These are also called hardcopy
images.

ƒ Sometimes images are also seen in electronic forms on the TV

screen or computer monitor. Such electronic images are called
softcopy images.

ƒ Photographs are also known as continuous tone images

because they are usually composed of a large number of varying
tones or shades of colors.

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 Image
Image Types
ƒ Sometimes due to limitations of the display or printing devices,
all the colors of a photograph cannot be represented adequately.

ƒ In those cases a subset of the total number of colors are

displayed. Such images are called partial tone or halftone
images.

ƒ A third category of images is called bitonal images which uses

only two colors, typically black and white, and do not use any
shades of gray.

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 Image
Image Types

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 Image
Color
ƒ The phenomenon of seeing color is dependent on a triad of
factors: the nature of light, the interaction of light and matter, and
the physiology of human vision.

ƒ Light is a form of energy known as electromagnetic radiation.

Electromagnetic radiation consists of a large number of waves
with varying frequencies and wavelengths.

ƒ Out of the total electromagnetic spectrum a small range of waves

cause sensations of light in our eyes. This is called the visible
spectrum of waves

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 Image
Color
ƒ The second part of the color triad is human vision. The retina is
the light-sensitive part of the eye and its surface is composed of
photoreceptors or nerve endings.

ƒ These receive the light and pass it along through the optic nerve
as a stimulus to the brain. The different frequencies gives rise to
the different color sensations in our eyes.

ƒ The third factor is the interaction of light with matter. Whenever

light waves strike an object, part of the light energy gets
absorbed and/or transmitted, while the remaining part gets
reflected back to our eyes.
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 Image
Color Models
ƒ Color models help us in recognizing and expressing information
related to color.

ƒ Researchers have found out that most of the colors that we see
around us can be derived from mixing a few elementary colors.
These elementary colors are known as primary colors.

ƒ Primary colors mixed in varying proportions produce other colors

called composite colors. This provides us with a way to refer to
any arbitrary color : by specifying the name and proportions of
the primary colors from which it can be produced.

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 Image
Color Models
ƒ The RGB color model is used to describe behavior of colored
lights like those emitted from a TV screen or a computer monitor.
This model has three primary colors : red, green, blue.

ƒ Proportions of colors are determined by the beam strength. An

electron beam having the maximum intensity falling on a
phosphor dot creates 100% of the corresponding color.

ƒ 50% of the color results from a beam having half the peak
strength.

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 Image
Color Models

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 Image
Color Models
ƒ An arbitrary color, say orange, can be specified as 96% red, 40%
green and 14% blue.

ƒ This means that to produce orange colored light the three

electron beams striking the red, green and blue phosphors, need
to have 96%, 40% and 14% of their max. intensities respectively.

ƒ All three primary colors at full intensities combine together to

produce white i.e. their brightness values are added up. Because
of this the RGB model is called an additive model.

ƒ A color present at 100% of its intensity is called saturated,

otherwise the color is said to be unsaturated
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Color Models

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 Image
Color Models
ƒ The RGB model is only valid for describing behaviour of colored lights.
When specifying colors of ink on paper we require a different model.

ƒ This new model is named CMY model and is used to specify printed
colors. The primary colors of this model are cyan, magenta and yellow.

ƒ These colors when mixed together in equal proportions produce black,

due to which the model is known as a subtractive model.

ƒ Due to impurities in the ink the actual color obtained is dark brown
instead of black. So an extra black ink is added to produce pure black
which is why the color model is known as CMYK, the K standing for the
black component.

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 Image
Color Models

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 Image
Color Models
ƒ It is to be noted that both the RGB and the CMYK models do not have
universal or absolute color values.

ƒ Different devices will give rise to slightly different sets of colors. For this
reason both the RGB and the CMYK models are known as device
dependent color models.

ƒ Another issue of concern here is the total range of colors supported by

each color model. This is known as the gamut of the model.

ƒ It has been found that the RGB model has a larger gamut than the
CMYK model. This essentially means that all colors in the RGB model
cannot be expressed in terms of the CMYK model.

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 Image
Color Models

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 Image
Image Processing Stages
ƒ Image input is the first stage of image processing. It is concerned
with getting natural images into a computer system for
subsequent work. Essentially it deals with the conversion of
analog images into digital forms.

ƒ For images, digitization involves physical devices like the

scanner or digital camera which are devices used to convert
analog images into the digital form.

ƒ Sometimes we can start with ready-made digital images e.g.

copied from a clipart gallery or a photo-CD, or downloaded from
the Internet.
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 Image
Image Processing Stages
ƒ After the images have been digitized and stored as files on the
hard disk of a computer, they are edited to make them more
suitable for specific requirements.

ƒ This step is called editing and usually involves one or more

image editing software which provides various tools and
functionalities for editing the images.

ƒ After editing, the images are usually compressed using

mathematical algorithms and then saved into specific file
formats.

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 Image
Image Processing Stages
ƒ Image output is the last stage in image processing concerned
with displaying the edited image to the user.

ƒ In most cases the image need to be displayed on-screen via a

monitor. However for some applications like printing a catalog or
brochure, the images need to be printed on paper using a printer

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 Image
Scanner
ƒ To start a scanning operation, the paper document to be scanned is
placed face down on the glass panel of the scanner, and the scanner is
activated using a software from the host computer.

ƒ The scan head contains a source of white light. As the head moves
across the paper, the light illuminates the paper progressively.

ƒ The light on getting reflected by the paper image is made to fall on a

grid of electronic sensors, by an arrangement of mirrors and lenses.

ƒ The electronic sensors are called charge coupled devices (CCD) and
are basically converters of the light energy into voltage pulses.

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 Image
Scanner

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 Image
Scanner
ƒ After a complete scan, the image is converted from a continuous entity
into a discrete form represented by a series of separate varying voltage
pulses. This process is called sampling

ƒ The next step called quantization involves representing the voltage

pulses as binary numbers and carried out by an ADC inside the scanner
in conjunction with a software bundled with the scanner called the
scanning software.

ƒ The collection of binary numbers is stored on the hard disk of the PC as

a digital image file. Since each number has been derived from the
intensity of the incident light, these essentially represent brightness
values at different points of the image, and are known as pixels

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 Image
Scanner
ƒ The flatbed scanners are the most common type in office
environments and has been described above. It looks like a
photocopying machine with a glass panel on which the document
to be scanned is placed face down.

ƒ Depending on bright and dark regions of the document, the CCD

generates varying voltage signals which are stored in a buffer
and later fed to an ADC

ƒ Drum scanners are used to obtain good quality scans for

professional purposes and generally provide a better
performance than flatbed scanners.
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 Image
Scanner
ƒ For the sensing element, drum scanners use a Photo-multiplier
Tube (PMT) instead of a CCD. A PMT, also referred to as an
electron multiplier, is much more sensitive to light than the CCD
and more expensive as well.

ƒ A barcode scanner is designed specifically to read barcodes

printed on various surfaces. A barcode is a machine-readable
representation of information in a visual format.

ƒ Since the CCD elements are sensitive to the brightness of the

light, the pixels essentially store only the brightness information
of the original image. This is also known as luminance (or luma)
information.

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 Image
Scanner
ƒ To include the color or chrominance (or chroma) information,
there are three CCD elements for each pixel of the image
formed. These three elements are sensitive to the red, blue and
green components of light.

ƒ White light reflected off the paper document is split into the
primary color components by a glass prism and made to fall on
the corresponding CCD sub-components.

ƒ The signal output from each sub-component can be combined to

produce a color scanned image. The pixels in this case contain
both the luma and chroma information.
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 Image
Scanner

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 Image
Scanner
ƒ To describe a color digital image, the pixels need to contain both
the luma and the chroma values i.e. not only the color values but
the proportion of each color.

ƒ In a 24-bit image each pixel of the image is represented by a 24-

bit number. The single number is divided into 3 parts to cater to
RGB information.

ƒ Each of these three parts consisting of 8 bits store proportions of

the three primary color. Each part range from 0 to 255, so 255 is
taken to represent 100% of the corresponding color.

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 Image
Scanner
ƒ Thus to represent the orange color we write : R = 245 (96% of
255), G = 102 (40% of 255), B = 36 (14% of 255). This is called a
RGB triplet and expressed as RGB(245,102,36).

ƒ The quality of a scanned image is determined mostly by its

resolution and color depth. The scanner resolution pertains to the
resolution of the CCD elements inside a scanner measured in
dots per inch (dpi).

ƒ The optical resolution refers to the actual number of sensor

elements per inch on the scan head. Most of the flatbed
scanners nowadays have optical resolutions of the order of 1600
dpi to 3200 dpi,

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 Image
Scanner

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 Image
Scanner
ƒ Scanners however are often rated with resolution values higher
than that of the optical resolution e.g. 5400, 7200 or 9600 dpi.

ƒ These resolutions are called interpolated resolutions and

basically involves a software interpolation process for generating
new pixel values.

ƒ The other parameter determining scan quality is the color depth.

While resolution determines how closely the dots are captured,
color depth indicates the total number of colors that can be
represented in an image.

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 Image
Scanner
ƒ To scan an image, the user needs a scanning software to be
installed on the computer. The software lets the user interact with
the scanner and set parameters like bit depth and resolution.

ƒ A typical scanning software should allow the user to do the

following : set bit depth, output path, set file type, adjust
brightness, contrast, resolution, color tint, scale the image.

ƒ Additionally some scanners may also contain functions for

flipping the image and inverting its color.

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 Image
Scanner

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 Image
Digital Camera
ƒ Apart from the scanner used to digitize paper documents and
film, another device used to digitize real world images is the
digital camera.

ƒ Just like a conventional camera, a digital camera also has a lens

through which light from real world objects enter the camera.

ƒ But instead of falling on film to initiate a chemical reaction, the

light instead falls on a CCD array, similar to that inside the
scanner.

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 Image
Digital Camera

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 Image
Digital Camera
ƒ Just like a scanner, the voltage pulses from the CCD array travel
to an ADC where they are converted to binary representations
and stored as a digital image file.

ƒ Unlike a scanner a digital camera is usually not attached to a

computer via a cable. The camera has its own storage facility
inside it usually in the form of a floppy drive or RAM.

ƒ Most of the digital cameras have an LCD screen at the back,

which serve two important purposes : first it can be used as a
viewfinder for composition and adjustment, secondly after the
image has been stored on the floppy disc, it can be used for
previewing the image.

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 Image
Digital Camera

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 Image
Digital Camera
ƒ Digital cameras also have some kind of software utility resident in a
ROM chip inside it which allow the user to toggle between the CAMERA
mode (for taking pictures) and PLAY mode (for displaying pictures
taken).

ƒ In the PLAY mode the user is presented with a menu structure having
some of the functionalities like : displaying all the images on the floppy,
selecting a particular image, deleting selected images, write-protecting
the important images from deletion etc.

ƒ In the CAMERA mode the software takes care of the compression

process before storing the images, and additionally allows changing
some parameters like lighting, color adjustments, special effects etc.

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 Image
Digital Camera

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 Image
Interface
ƒ Interface standards determine how data from acquisition devices
like scanners and digital cameras flow to the computer in an
efficient way. Two main interface standards exist : TWAIN and
ISIS.

ƒ TWAIN is a very important standard in image acquisition,

developed by Hewlett-Packard, Kodak, Aldus, Logitech and
Caere which specifies how image acquisition devices such as
scanners, digital cameras and other devices transfer data to
software applications.

ƒ It is basically an image capture API for Microsoft Windows and

Apple Macintosh platforms.

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 Image
Interface
ƒ TWAIN is a software protocol which regulates the flow of
information between software applications and imaging devices
like scanners. The standard is managed by the TWAIN Working
Group.

ƒ The second important standard for document scanner is the

Image and Scanner Interface Specification (ISIS). It was
developed by Pixel Translations and they retain control over its
develoment and licensing.

ƒ ISIS has a wider set of features than TWAIN and typically uses
the SCSI-2 interface while TWAIN mostly uses the USB interface
TMH Chapter - 5 39
 Image
Specifications
ƒ The number of pixels along the height and width of a bitmap
image is known as the pixel dimensions of the image.

ƒ The display size of an image on-screen is determined by the

pixel dimensions of the image plus the size and setting of the
monitor.

ƒ The file size of an image is proportional to its pixel dimensions.

ƒ The number of pixels displayed per unit length of the image is

known as the image resolution, and usually measured in pixels
per inch (ppi).
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 Image
Specifications
ƒ The digital size of an image measured in kilobytes (KB),
megabytes (MB) or gigabytes (GB), is proportional to the pixel
dimensions of the image.

ƒ Images with more pixels may produce more detail but they
require more storage space and may be slower to edit and print.

ƒ The color depth defines the number of bits required to store the
information of each pixel in the image, and in turn determines the
total number of possible colors that can be displayed in the
image.

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 Image
Specifications
ƒ A bitmap image is stored internally as collection of dots called
pixels, each representing a particular color. A bitmap image is
suitable for representing continuous tone photographic pictures.

ƒ A vector graphic on the other hand, is stored internally as

mathematical entities rather than a collection of colored dots.

ƒ A vector graphic may be scaled to various sizes without

degradation on quality while scaling of bitmap images may lead
to pixelation.

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 Image
Specifications

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 Image
Specifications
ƒ Secondly a vector graphic is quite compact and has a small file
size compared to a raster or bitmap image/graphic as the former
contains no pixel information, only certain instructions as to how
the image should look when rendered on screen.

ƒ Thirdly because of the mathematical representation and small

size, vector entities can more easily be animated (translation and
rotation) and still maintain their crisp looks.

ƒ The drawback of vector entities is that they are not abe to

represent accurately a large number of fine color variations like
photographic continuous tone images, because representing
them in mathematical terms is often difficult or impossible.

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 Image
CMS
ƒ A color management system (CMS) is a collection of software
tools designed to reconcile the different color capabilities of
scanners, monitors, printers, image-setters, and printing presses
to ensure consistent color throughout the print production
process.

ƒ In 1993, members of the computer and color publishing industry

began working toward a common approach to color
management. They formed the International Color Consortium
(ICC) in order to establish color standards.

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 Image
CMS
ƒ An ICC color management system has three major components:

(1) Device profiles that define the color characteristics of a

particular device.

(2) A device-independent color space, also known as a

Reference Color Space.

(3) A Color Management Module (CMM) that interprets the

device profiles and carries out the instructions on what to do with
different devices’ color spaces.

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 Image
CMS
ƒ A color management system works by determining the color space of
each device stored as a set of parameters in a file called the device
profile.

ƒ The device profile file (also called ICC profiles) are either supplied by
the manufacturer of the device or generated by a series of parameters
obtained from the device.

ƒ The device profiles represent the unique characteristics of each device.

ƒ When an image created on one monitor is displayed on another monitor,

the difference in the characteristics between the two monitors would
tend to change the observed colors of the image.

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 Image
CMS
ƒ To minimize that, the second component of the CMS called the
color management module (CMM) would read the two device
profiles, analyze the difference between them and adjust the
image colors accordingly so that it looks the same when
displayed in the second monitor.

ƒ For translating from one color space to another, the CMM needs
to map the first color space to a device–independent color space
and then maps it again to the second color space.

ƒ A device-independent color space is one where the set of

displayable colors is independent of any specific device but
rather is based on the human perception of color.

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 Image
Device independence
ƒ A device independent color model communicates color
information in a way the human eye perceives them and is not
dependent on any specific device like a monitor or printer.

ƒ Unlike a monitor or printer which interprets color in terms of

R,G,B or C,M,Y,K components, the human physiological
systems, also known as the human visual system (HVS),
interprets color information in terms of the luminance and
chrominance components.

ƒ The luminance (or luma) components depicts the brightness

information in an image without regard to the color component
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 Image
Device independence
ƒ Superimposed on the luminance information is the chrominance
(or chroma) component which depicts the color information in
different parts of the image.

ƒ According to CIE LAB model somewhere between the optical

nerve and the brain, retinal color stimuli are translated into
distinctions between light and dark, red and green, and blue and
yellow.

ƒ CIELAB indicates these values with three axes: L*, a*, and b*.

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 Image
Device independence
ƒ Another device independent model frequently used is known as
the HSB model which uses the concepts of hue, saturation and
brightness to communicate color information.

ƒ Hue defines the color itself, for example, red in distinction to blue
or yellow.

ƒ The values for the hue axis run from 0–360° beginning and
ending with red and running through green, blue and all
intermediary colors like greenish-blue, orange, purple, etc.

ƒ This representation is known as the Color Wheel and forms the

basis of representing colors in terms of angles.
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 Image
Device independence

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 Image
Device independence
ƒ Saturation indicates the degree to which the hue differs from a
neutral gray. The values run from 0%, which is no color
saturation, to 100%, which is the fullest saturation of a given hue
at a given percentage of illumination.

ƒ Lightness indicates the level of illumination. The values run as

percentages; 0% appears black (no light) while 100% is full
illumination, which washes out the color

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 Image
Gamma
ƒ When a perfectly linear gradient ranging from black to white is
shown on the monitor, the monitor distorts the gradient
somewhat.

ƒ The gradient would appear to be dark for most of its width and
then suddenly become bright.

ƒ The reason is that the monitor is a non-linear device so that

equal increments in pixel values do not result in equal
increments of the screen brightness.

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 Image
Gamma
ƒ Thus a pixel brightness of 50% will result in a screen brightness
of only 20%. This can be represented mathematically by a power
function whose value turns out to be approximately 2.5.

ƒ Thus 0.5 raised to the power 2.5 results in 0.2. i.e.(output pixel) =
(input pixel)gamma

ƒ The reason for this non-linearity is the electron gun itself;

increasing the voltage input to the gun does not increase the flow
of electrons linearly.

ƒ The value of 2.5 is characteristics of all CRTs.

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 Image
Gamma
ƒ To prevent all our pictures on the screen from looking
excessively dark a correction is applied to the monitor, which is
known as gamma correction.

ƒ Most software packages have gamma correction tools whose

objective is to brighten up the image. This actually means that
the inverse of the gamma value is applied, according to the
relation : (output pixel) = {(input pixel) 1/gamma-correction }gamma

ƒ Physically gamma correction is applied through a Look-Up Table

(LUT) between the image and the monitor. As each pixel value is
read out from the buffer, it goes to the LUT where it gets a new
value according to the above relation and brightens up.

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 Image
Gamma

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 Image
Editing Software
ƒ An image processing software offers a wide variety of ways to
manipulate and enhance images. We discuss below some of the
salient features of a typical image processing software.

ƒ Selection tools enables us to select a specific portion out of an

image and manipulate it or copy it to another image.

ƒ Painting tools are used to paint lines, shapes etc. or fill regions
with specified colors.

ƒ Color selection tools are used to select foreground and

background colors from a color palette
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 Image
Editing Software
ƒ Gradient tools are used to create smooth blends of multiple
colors.

ƒ Clone tools are used to create multiple copies of specific features

in an image.

ƒ Transformation tools are used to transform specific portions of an

image in various ways like moving, rotating, scaling, skewing,
distorting etc.

ƒ Retouching tools are used to change brightness/contrast of the

image as well as color hues.
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 Image
Editing Software
ƒ Text tools allow the user to include text in various styles and
sizes.

ƒ Filters are mathematical algorithms which change images in

certain pre-defined ways.

ƒ Image processing software allow images to be opened and

saved in various file formats. Operations like changing image
dimensions, color depth and resolution are also allowed.

ƒ Images may also be expressed using different color models

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 Image
Editing Software
ƒ The concept of layers allow the user to edit portions of an image
independent of other portions, by splitting the image into
separate layers.

ƒ Color channels separate out the pixels of the primary colors of an

image and allow the user to edit each color independently.

ƒ Masks allow the user to select areas of an image and protect

these from editing changes applied to the rest of the image.

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Editing Software

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Editing Software
ƒ When displaying images with curves and diagonal lines on the
screen one can often find that these lines look jagged instead of
smooth.

ƒ A sort of staircase effect replaces what should be smooth curves

and diagonal lines, and hence this effect is known as aliasing.

ƒ Anti-aliasing is a method to counter this staircase effect and

restore the smooth appearances of curves and diagonal lines.

ƒ Dithering is a technique for improving image appearance by

simulating additional colors by changing the concentration of the
dots of the existing colors.
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Editing Software

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 Image
File Formats
ƒ BMP - BMP is a standard Windows image format on DOS and
Windows-compatible computers. BMP format supports RGB,
Indexed Color, Grayscale, and Bitmap color modes, and does
not support alpha channels

ƒ JPEG - Joint Photographers Experts Group (JPEG) format is

commonly used to display photographs and other continuous-
tone images in hypertext markup language (HTML) documents
over the World Wide Web and other online services. JPEG
format supports CMYK, RGB, and Grayscale color modes, and
does not support alpha channels.

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 Image
File Formats
ƒ GIF - Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) is the file format
commonly used to display indexed-color graphics and images in
hypertext markup language (HTML) documents over the World
Wide Web and other online services. GIF format preserves
transparency in indexed-color images; however, it does not
support alpha channels.

ƒ TIFF - Tagged-Image File Format (TIFF) designed by Aldus

Corporation and Microsoft in 1987, is used to exchange files
between applications and computer platforms. It uses a lossless
compression technique and is suitable for printing applications.

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 Image
Image Output
ƒ Image output on the monitor depends on both the monitor size
and monitor resolution.

ƒ Absolute size of the image increases with the monitor size and if
image resolution is more than the monitor resolution.

ƒ Whether the image occupies the entire screen of the monitor or

not depends on the pixel dimensions of the image and the
monitor viewing mode.

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 Image
Image Output
ƒ A typical 13" monitor displays 640 pixels horizontally and 480
pixels vertically. An image with pixel dimensions of 640 by 480
would fill this small screen.
ƒ On a larger 15" monitor with a 640 by 480 setting, the same
image would still fill the screen but each pixel would appear
larger. Changing the setting of this larger monitor to 832 by 624
pixels would display the image at a smaller size occupying part
of the screen.
ƒ On a 20" monitor, if setting is kept at 640 by 480, the same
image would again fill the screen, but at a higher setting of 1024
by 768, the image will occupy a very small portion of the screen.

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Image Output

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 Image
Image Output
ƒ Image output on printers can either be on LASER printers or Ink-
jet printers.

ƒ A LASER printer uses a photoconductor drum on which a

charged version of the image is etched by the LASER.

ƒ The charge is used to attract toners which are then transferred to

the paper, heated and fused with it through pressure.

ƒ Colored printing is produced by using cyan, magenta and yellow

toners in combination with the black toner, to produce the
different printable colors.
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Image Output

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 Image
Image Output
ƒ Ink-jet printers use water based colored inks which are transferred on to
paper from reservoirs through nozzles.

ƒ Most inkjets use thermal technology, whereby heat is used to fire ink
onto the paper. The ink emission is initiated by heating the ink to create
a bubble until the pressure forces it to burst and hit the paper.

ƒ Epson's proprietary piezo-electric technology uses a piezo crystal at the

back of the ink reservoir. It uses the property of certain crystals that
causes them to oscillate when subjected to electrical pressure (voltage).

ƒ So, whenever a dot is required, a current is applied to the piezo

element, the element flexes and in so doing forces a drop of ink out of
the nozzle.

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 Image
Image Output

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