Introduction to

Spectral
Techniques
Feb 11, 12, 2019
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Spatial and Frequency Domain

• Spatial (time) domain techniques operate
directly on pixels
– Main advantage : they can be visualized easily
• Same operations can also be done in the
Frequency domain
– Based on the decomposition of image signals into sine and
cosine functions using the well-known Fourier transform
• Frequency domain deals with the frequency
components of the image
• Frequency domain techniques are based on
modifying the Fourier transform of an image
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Spatial a
and
Frequency domain time domain frequency domain

b
d=a+b+c
d
time domain frequency domain

c
time domain frequency domain

time domain frequency domain

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Spatial and Frequency Domain

• Spatial and Frequency domain are precisely
different representations of the same
information
• A change in the problem representation can
help solve problem faster
• Most of the image processing applications are
real time applications which require faster
algorithms
• The Frequency domain holds the key to the
requirements of speed and simplicity of
operations
• How?
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Spatial and Frequency Domain

• In general, mathematical transforms are

required to convert the image data in the
spatial domain to frequency components in
the frequency domain

• Inverse transforms convert the results of

frequency domain manipulations back to the
original spatial domain for human observation
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Spatial Frequencies in Image Processing

• The rate of change of pixel intensity of an image in
space
• It can be visualized using the line profile of the image
in any row or column
– Profile is a plot of the intensity of the pixels in a row or a column
(These intensity profiles  very useful in IP )

• These intensity profiles are a collection of either

sinusoidal signals or non-sinusoidal signals
– The high frequency components in the image are due to rapidly
changing data (e.g., edges); and
– The low frequency components are responsible for the contrast
and other large-scale features of the image
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Types of Image Transforms

• Two categories of transforms available:

– Sinusoidal (orthogonal)
• Fourier Transform, Discrete Cosine Transform,
Discrete Sine Transform
• Fourier method is useful in converting a spatial
description of an image in terms of image frequency
components
– Non-Sinusoidal
• Uses basis functions non-Sinusoidal in nature
• Haar, Walsh, and Hadamard Transforms
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Image Transforms: Practical Applications (1)

• Transforms convert spatial information to
frequency domain information, where certain
operations are easier to perform
– For ex: convolution operation can be reduced to matrix
multiplication in the frequency domain leading to
faster execution and efficient design of algorithms

• Transforms are very useful in gaining

valuable insight into concepts such as
sampling (discretization)
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Image Transforms: Practical Applications (2)

• Property of energy preservation - the signal
energy is preserved
• Property of energy compaction - a large
fraction of the average energy of the image is
packed into a few components
– This uneven distribution of energy in the transformed image
results in many components having negligible energy
• This implied that most of the energy packed into a few
coefficients, resulting in more 0s and small nos.,
enabling better image compression, as 0s need not be
sent across the transmission channel
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Image Transforms: Practical Applications (3)

• Spatial frequency transforms help in
assessing the image quality
• Frequency components indicate repetitive
noise patterns and also the presence/
absence of high/low/mid frequencies that
exist in an image
– A slight noise added to an image will result in a different
transform of the image

• Solution?
– To remove certain frequencies, set their corresponding F(u)
coefficients to zero! See how it can be done…
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Joseph Fourier (1768-1830)

Fourier was obsessed with the physics of heat and developed
the Fourier transform theory to model heat-flow problems
• Had crazy idea (1807):
Any periodic function can be rewritten as a
weighted sum of Sines and Cosines of
different frequencies.
• Don‟t believe it?
– Neither did Lagrange, Laplace (his mentors), Poisson
and others; and his work not translated into English
until 1878!
• But it‟s true!
– called Fourier Series; Possibly the greatest tool
used in Engineering
During the past 50 years, entire industries and academic
disciplines have flourished as a result of Fourier’s ideas
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Fourier Transform: Basic Ideas

 A periodic function can be represented by the sum of
sines/cosines functions of different frequencies, multiplied by a
different coefficient (Fourier Series)
 Non-periodic functions (whose area under the curve is finite) can
also be represented as the integral of sines/cosines multiplied by
weighing function (Fourier Transform)
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Fourier Transform: A Review

• Both representations share the important
characteristics that a function, expressed in
either a Fourier series or Fourier Transform,
can be reconstructed completely via an inverse
process, with no loss of information

• This characteristics allow us to work in the

Fourier domain and then return to the original
domain of the function without losing any
information
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Fourier Transform: Why?

• Mathematically, it is easy to analyze effects of
transmission medium, noise, etc. on simple sine/cos
functions, then add to get effect on complex signal
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Fourier Transform: Some Observations

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Fourier Transform: Some Observations

Approximating a square wave as the sum of
sine waves
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It goes like this ….

Approximating a
square wave as
the sum of sine
waves
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Fourier Transform: Example

• Removing undesirable frequencies

• To remove certain frequencies, set their

corresponding F(u) coefficients to zero!
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We will be dealing only with

functions (images) of finite duration,

so the Fourier transform

is the tool in which we are interested

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Sine and Cosine Functions (Recall)

has a value 1 at the origin and
performs exactly one full cycle b/w
the origin and the point x = 2π

The same is true for the

corresponding sine
function, except that its
value is zero at the origin

Amplitude of these functions is 1 as they oscillates b/w

peak values ±1
Multiplying by a constant „a‟ changes the peak values of
the function to ±a and its amplitude to „a‟
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Frequency and Amplitude (Recall)

No. of oscillations of cos(x) over the distance T = 2π is 1
Thus, the value of angular frequency

Modify the function to

gives a compressed cosine wave that
oscillates 3 times faster than the
original function cos(x)
Performs 3 full cycles over a distance
of 2π, thus ω = 3

In general, function with amplitude „a‟

and angular frequency „ω‟

Relation b/w angular frequency

and the “common” frequency f:
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Phase (Recall)
• In general, the function f(x-d) is the original
function f(x) shifted to the right by a distance „d‟
• Shifting a cosine function along the x-axis by a
distance :

changes the phase of the cosine wave, and φ

denotes the phase angle of the resulting function
• A sine function is just a cosine function shifted to
the right by a quarter period
• Taking cosine function with phase 0 as a reference,
the phase angle of the corresponding sine function
is
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Phase
• Cosine and sine functions are “orthogonal” in a sense
that they can be used to create new “sinusoidal”
functions with arbitrary frequency, phase, and
amplitude

The resulting amplitude C and the phase angle are

defined as:

A = B = 0.5 and resulting = 450

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Complex-valued Sine Functions and

Euler’s Notation

• Reminds the representation of real

and imaginary components of
complex nos
in the 2D plane and

• Euler‟s famous notation of complex nos along the unit

circle: is Euler no.
(can be derived from the well-known Taylor series)

• Complex notation makes it easy to combine orthogonal

pairs of sine functions with identical frequencies 𝜔
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Fourier Series of Periodic Functions

• Can we decompose non-sinusoidal function into a
sum of cosine and sine functions ? Yes
• (Almost) any periodic function 𝑔(𝑥) with fundamental
frequency can be described as a sum of sinusoids

• This infinite sum is called a Fourier Series

• Summed sines and cosines are multiples of the
fundamental frequency (harmonics)
• 𝐴𝑘 and 𝐵𝑘 – Fourier coefficients
• Not known initially but derived from original function 𝑔(𝑥) during
Fourier analysis
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Fourier Integral
• For non-periodic functions we can get similar
results by letting 𝑇  ∞
• Similar ideas yield Fourier Integral
– Integration of densely packed sines and cosines

where coefficients are again the weights for the corresponding

cosine and sine functions with (continuous) frequency 𝜔

Fourier Integral is the basis of the Fourier Spectrum

and the Fourier Transform …
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Fourier Integral
reconstruct the original
function from its spectrum

compute the spectrum from a given function g(x)

• This representation of 𝑔(𝑥) involves infinitely many densely

spaced frequency values 𝜔, the corresponding coefficients are
continuous functions as well
• Fourier Spectrum - Continuous distribution of frequency
components contained in the original signal
• Fourier Integral describes the original function 𝑔(𝑥) as a sum of
infinitely many cosine and sine functions, with the corresponding
Fourier coefficients contained in the functions 𝐴(𝜔) and 𝐵(𝜔)
• A signal 𝑔(𝑥) is uniquely & fully represented by the corresponding
coefficient functions 𝐴(𝜔) and 𝐵(𝜔)
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Fourier Transform
• Fourier Transform: Transition of function 𝑔(𝑥) to
its Fourier spectrum 𝐺(𝜔)

Also, check for other

common definitions of
the Fourier transform

• Inverse Fourier Transform: Reconstruction of

original function 𝑔(𝑥) from its Fourier spectrum 𝐺(𝜔)
• 𝑔(𝑥) and 𝐺(𝜔) constitute
Fourier transform pair
𝑔(𝑥) ↔ 𝐺(𝜔) or
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The spectrum produced by the Fourier

transform is a new representative of the
signal in a space of frequencies.

Apparently, this “frequency space” and

the original “signal/image space” are
dual and interchangeable mathematical
representations.
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Fourier Transform Pairs

(cosine and sine functions)

g(x) GRe(ω)

g(x) GRe(ω)
Cos 3x

g(x) GIm(ω)
Cos 5x

g(x) GIm(ω)
Sin 3x

Sin 5x
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Fourier Transform Pairs

(Gaussian Functions and Rectangular Pulses)
g(x) GRe(ω)

g(x) GRe(ω)
σ=1

σ=3

g(x) GRe(ω)

b=1

2𝑏 sin(𝑏𝜔)
𝐺 𝜔 = b=2
2𝜋(𝑏𝜔)
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Fourier Transform – Imp Properties

• Symmetry

• Linearity

• Similarity/Scaling

• Shift property

• Convolution property
Convolution in spatial domain
 Multiplication (pointwise) in frequency domain
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Working with Discrete Signals

• Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT)

• How a continuous function can be

converted to a discrete signal?

• The process is called sampling

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Sampling
• A continuous function 𝑓(𝑥) is discretized as:
{ f ( x0 ), f ( x0  x), f ( x0  2x),..., f ( x0  (M  1)x)}

{ f (0), f (1), f (2),..., f (M  1)}

M samples from continuous function

They are taken at
equally spaced,
but otherwise
arbitrary points
x0  1st arbitrary
located point in
the sequence
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Impulse Function
∞ if 𝑥 = 0
𝛿 𝑥 =
0 if 𝑥 ≠ 0

Sampling with Impulse Function

Shifting
property of
impulse

The continuous
signal g(x) is
sampled at
position x0 = 3

sum of pulse
shifted sequence or
impulses pulse train
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Sampling with Comb Function

Extending this pulse train to infinity in both directions,
gives the “comb” or “Shah” function
The process of discretizing a continuous
function by taking samples at regular
integral intervals:

The function value g(x) is

transferred to the resulting
function ḡ(x) only at integral
positions x = xi ∈ ℤ

To take samples at regular but

arbitrary intervals 𝜏, the
sampling function is simply
scaled along the time/space axis:
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Effects of Sampling in Frequency Space

Comb Function and its Fourier Transform

Note that the actual height of

the 𝛿-pulses is undefined and
shown only for illustration.
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Effects of Sampling in Frequency Space

What happens to the Fourier spectrum during discretization ?
(when we multiply a function in signal space by comb function )
Remember convolution property …

Fourier spectrum of the sampling function is a comb function again

and therefore consists of a sequence of regularly spaced pulses
Also,
• Convolving an arbitrary function with the impulse returns the
original function;
• Convolving with a shifted pulse also reproduces the original
function, though shifted by the same distance
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Aliasing and the Sampling Theorem

As a consequence, the spectrum 𝐺 𝜔 of the original continuous

signal becomes replicated (with a period 2𝜋⁄𝜏) in the Fourier
spectrum of 𝐺 (𝜔) of a sampled signal at every pulse of the sampling
function‟s spectrum; i.e., infinitely many times.
As long as spectral replicas in
𝐺 (𝜔) do not overlap, the original
spectrum 𝐺 𝜔 , and hence the
original continuous function can
be reconstructed without loss
from any replica of 𝐺 𝜔 in the
periodic spectrum 𝐺 (𝜔).
The maximum allowed signal
(𝑔(𝑥)) frequency depends on the
sampling frequency used to
discretize the signal
Spectral effects of sampling
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Discrete and Periodic Functions

The signals and spectra given here

are for illustration purpose only. They
do not really correspond each other
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Discrete Signals
• If a continuous signal 𝑔(𝑥) is
sampled at regular intervals 𝜏, then
the corresponding Fourier spectrum
becomes periodic with a period of
length 𝜔𝑠 = 2𝜋 𝜏
• Sampling in signal space leads to
periodicity in frequency space and
vice versa
• Image is a 2D function!
– For discrete functions we need only finite
number of sequences
– Ex: consider the discrete sequence
1, 1, 1, 1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1
It is discrete approximation of square wave
 References
• Digital Image Processing - An
Algorithmic Introduction using Java by
Dr. Wilhelm Burger and Dr. Mark J. Burge
• R. C. Gonzalez and R. E. Woods, Digital
Image Processing, Third Edition,
Pearson, 2012.
• Computer Vision course by Dr. S.
Narasimhan