COURSE CODE: 102100605

MACHINE VISION 
Dr. AJAY M PATEL
MECHATRONICS DEPARTMENT
Chapter 2
Digital Image Fundamentals
One picture is worth than thousand words
 What Makes a good image?
• Cameras (resolution, focus, aperture),
• Distance from object (field of view),
• Illumination (intensity of light, direction,
expose time, light source),
• Background characteristics
• etc
 Topics
• Human vision system
• Brightness adaptation & Discrimination
• Image acquisition
• Image formation model
• Image sampling & Quantization
• Spatial & gray level resolution
• Zooming & Shrinking
• Pixel relationships
 Human Visual Perception
• Why is it important?
• Because many techniques in DIP are highly
subjective.
• Human analysis plays a central role
• Structure of the Human eye
• Human vision & Computer Vision.
• Effects of brightness & contrast on human
vision.
 Human Visual System
• Concerns how an image is perceived by
human?
• Important to develop image intensity
measures.
• Required for design and evaluate DIP
system.
Structure of the Human Eye
The fovea is responsible for sharp central vision (also called foveal
vision), which is necessary in humans for reading, driving, and any
activity where visual detail is of primary importance.
• We can see any object because the light is
reflected from that object.
• The reflected light is focused on the retina.
• Retina contains light receptors over its
surface. These receptors are like sensors.
• There are two classes of receptors: cones
and rods
Where are these cones & rods?
 Rods

Cones

Rods are responsible for vision at low light levels or scotopic

vision. They do not mediate color vision. Whereas, the cones are
responsible for vision at higher light levels or photopic vision
 Cones
• Primarily responsible for colour perception.
• Photopic (high light) vision: requires higher intensity
of light.
• 6-7millions, located primarily in the central part of
the retina called fovea
• muscles controlling the eye rotate the eyeball until
the image of an object of interest falls on the fovea.
• Each is connected to its own nerve, like each
photoelectric cell is connected to digitizing circuit
through separate wire.
• human can resolve the fine detail.
 Rods
• Scotopic (low light) vision (dim light vision).
• 75-150millions, distributed over the retina
surface.
• Several rods are connected to a single nerve end
so reduce the amount of details transferred.
• Serve to give a general, overall picture of the
field of view.
• 10 times more sensitive to the light than cones.
• Mainly sensitive to low illumination (low intensity
of light).
 You should know
• Object that appear brightly colored in the
daylight when seen by moon light appears
colorless, why?
Human & camera vision
• Human Lens is flexible
• When we see object at far distance , lens
becomes flat, to capture maximum light rays
reflected from the object. Same happens with
zoom in feature of camera.
• When we see object close to us, lens becomes
thicker, to capture only rays reflected from
the object. Its like zoom out in camera.
 Just comparison

• Assume Fovea is a rectangular array of size

1.5 mm x 1.5 mm.
• It contains approximately 150,000 cones
per mm^2.
• Total : 1.5 x 1.5 x 150,000 = 337,000
elements.
• For same no. of elements size of CCD= 5mm
x 5 mm.
• When you enter a dark theater on a bright
day, it takes an appreciable interval of time
before you can see well enough to find an
empty seat. Why is it so?
• The phenomenon described in this example is
known as "dark adaptation." This usually takes
about 20-30 seconds, depending on the intensity of
the light in the previous surroundings (in this case,
it was a bright day). The reason why we are able to
see in a wide variety of environments is because of
the photoreceptors found in our retina. These are
light-sensitive cells, and are divided into cones and
rods. The interaction of cones (day vision) and rods
(night vision) is what results in "dark adaptation."
Brightness & Contrast ?
 Brightness Adaptation

The transition from scotopic to photopic vision is gradual over the

approximate range from 0.001 to 0.1 millilambert ( -3 to -1 in the log scale),
 Brightness adaptation
• Human vision system can adapt very wide
range of brightness ranging from scotopic
threshold (very dark environment) to glare
limit (very bright environment).
• But the human vision cannot operate over
such a a range simultaneously.
• Total range of distinct intensity levels it can
discriminate (see separately) is smaller than
total adaptation range.
• Brightness is a function of intensity &
simultaneous contrast.
• It takes more time for eyes to adjust when
we move from brighter to darker
environment.
• But it takes less time when we move from
dark to light environment.
 Image Formation in the Eye
• In the human eye, the converse is true; the distance
between the lens and the imaging region (the retina)
is fixed, and the focal length needed to achieve proper
focus is obtained by varying the shape of the lens.
• The distance between the center of the lens and the
retina along the visual axis is approximately 17 mm.
The range of focal lengths approximately 14 mm to 17
mm, the latter taking place when the eye is relaxed
and focused at distances greater than about 3 m.
For example, suppose that a person is looking at a tree 15 m
high at a distance of 100 m. Letting h denote the height of
that object in the retinal image,
15/100 = h/17 , h=2.25mm

The retinal image is focused primarily on the region of the

fovea.
 Weber ratio
• To check ability to discriminate changes in
light intensity
• Flat uniformly illuminated area
• ∆I intensity Short-duration flash of circular
object
• ∆I/I called weber ratio when circle &
background are discriminated by observer
 Weber ratio
• High??
• Low??
• A small value of ∆I/I means that a small
percentage change in intensity is
discriminable. This represents “good”
brightness discrimination.
• a large value of ∆I/I means that a large
percentage change in intensity is required.
This represents “poor” brightness
discrimination.
Fig. 2.6. This curve shows that brightness discrimination is poor (the Weber
ratio is large) at low levels of illumination, and it improves significantly (the
Weber ratio decreases) as background illumination increases. The two
branches in the curve reflect the fact that at low levels of illumination vision is
carried out by the rods, whereas at high levels (showing better discrimination)
vision is the function of cones.
Brightness is a function of contrast

FIGURE 2.8 Examples of simultaneous contrast. All the inner squares

have the same intensity, but they appear progressively darker as the
background becomes lighter.
 Optical Illusions

In Fig. 2.9(a), the outline

of a square is seen
clearly, despite the fact
that no lines defining
such a figure are part of
the image. The same
effect, this time with a
circle, can be seen in Fig.
2.9(b)
EM Spectrum
• Chromatic (color) light spans the electromagnetic energy
spectrum from approximately 0.43 to 0.79um to as noted
previously.
• Three basic quantities are used to describe the quality of a
chromatic light source: radiance, luminance, and
brightness.
• Radiance is the total amount of energy that flows from the
light source, and it is usually measured in watts(W).
• Luminance, measured in lumens (lm), gives a measure of
the amount of energy an observer perceives from a light
source.
 Image Types
• Binary
• Gray Scale
• RGB
• Indexed
• Gray scale range
• Image Sensing
• Sensor Arrangements
• Image formation model
• Image Sampling and quantization
 Image Sensor
• Simple Image sensor is photodiode.
• Constructed from CCD or CMOS
• Silicon Material
• When light strikes, it gives some voltage as
output based on intensity.
• Filter is used with sensor for selectivity.
 Image Acquisition
• Using Single Sensor
• Line sensor
• Array sensor
How to Obtain 2D image with single
sensor?
How to Obtain 2D image with single
sensor?
• There must be relative displacement in both
the x- and y direction between the sensor &
area to be imaged.
• Use rotation of a drum and lead screw
technique.
• Cheaper but slower method for image
acquisition.
Image Acquisition using Line sensor
• The strip provides imaging in the one
direction , while motion perpendicular to
strip provided imaging in the other
direction.
• Used in Flat-Bed scanners
• Airborn imaging application.
• Also used in tomography.
• Airborn imaging application the imaging
system is mounted on an aircraft that flies
at a constant altitude and speed over the
geographical area to be imaged.
• Tomography Sensor strips mounted in a
ring configuration are used in medical and
industrial imaging to obtain cross-sectional
(“slice”) images of 3-D objects.
Image Acquisition using Sensor array
• Most widely used
• Entire image can be scanned without relative
displacement.
• Light rays reflected from the object are focused on
the image plane (sensor array).
• Digitizing circuitry converts output voltages of
each sensor in to corresponding number. As a
result, digital output is obtained.
• The process of digitizing of image involves 2 main
steps. i.e. sampling & quantization
Digitizer