INITIAL DISPLAY &

SCIENTIFIC
VISUALISATION

Department of Surveying Science & Geomatics

Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying
UiTM Perlis
 LESSON OUTCOMES
At the end of this topic, students should be able to:

 Describe colour composites:

True/False/Pseudo Colour Composites.
 Explain both RGB and IHS Colour
Coordinates Systems
 Briefly explain relationship between RGB
and Colour Coordinates System.
 LESSON OUTLINE

 Introduction
 Image Display Consideration
 Colour Composites : True/False/Pseudo Colour
Composites
 Red Green Blue (RGB)
 RGB Colour Coordinate System
 Intensity Hue Saturation (IHS)
 HIS Colour Coordinate System
 Relationship between RGB and IHS Colour System
 Conclusion
 INTRODUCTION

 Scientific visualization can be defined as

visually exploring data and information in
such a way as to gain understanding and
insight into the data
 The difference between scientific visualization
and presentation graphics is that the latter are
primarily concerned with the communication
of information and results that are already
understood.
 During scientific visualization we are seeking
to understand the data and gain insight.
 Image Display Consideration
• A brightness map is a computer graphic display of the brightness
values, BVi,j,k, found in digital remote sensor data.
• Ideally, there is a one-to-one relationship between input brightness
values and the resultant intensities of the output brightness values
on the display. For example, an input BV of 0 would result in a very
dark (black) intensity on the output brightness map, while a BV of
255 would produce a bright (white) intensity.
• All brightness values between 0 and 255 would be displayed as a
continuum of grays from black to white.
• In such a system, an input brightness value of 127 would be
displayed exactly as 127 (mid-gray) in the output image (assuming
contrast stretching does not take place).
The brightness value of a picture element (pixel) is read from mass storage by the central
processing unit (CPU). The digital value of the stored pixel is in its proper i,j location in the
image processor’s random access memory (RAM), often referred to as a video frame buffer.
The brightness value is then passed through a black-and-white or color look-up table where
modifications can be made. The output from the digital color look-up table is passed to a
digital-to-analog converter (DAC). The output from the DAC determines the intensity of the
signal for the three guns (Red, Green, and Blue) in the back of the monitor that stimulate
the phosphors on a computer cathode-ray tube (CRT) at a specific x,y location or the
transistors in a liquid crystal display (LCD).
Characteristics of A
Binary Bitmapped
Image

Jensen, 2007
 Colour Composites:
True colour, False colour & Pseudo
Colour

 In displaying a colour composite image, three primary

colours (red, green and blue) are used.
 When these three colours are combined in various
proportions, they produce different colours in the
visible spectrum.
 Associating each spectral band (not necessarily a
visible band) to a separate primary colour results in a
colour composite image.
 True colour composite : True color images are based entirely on
reflected solar radiation in the visible portion of the electromagnetic
spectrum. Haze in the atmosphere, shadows, clouds, and scattering all
affect the quality and usefulness of a true-color composite.
 False colour composite : if the mapping of color that use Band 4 (NIR) =
red, Band 3 (Visible red) = green and Band 2 (Visible green) = blue it call
“A near Infrared composite”. A Near Infrared composite eliminates the
visible blue band and uses a Near Infrared (NIR) band to produce the
image. The resulting composite does not resemble what the human eye
will see (for example, vegetation is red instead of green); however it is
very useful to researchers.
 Pseudo colour composite : A pseudo color image is an image consisting
of pixels of color indices and a color table for each color. The different
colors may be assigned to the subdivided gray scale of a single image the
Pseudo color image help to explain the difference of objects in map.
 Visible Blue B True Colour
G (Natural)
Visible Green R
B
Visible Red G False
R Colour
Infrared
Invisible

Thermal Image
Pseudo-Colour
(Invisible)
Exercises

 How to display colour composites

image?
 Describe the following colour
composites :
 True Colour
 False Colour
 Pseudo Colour
 RGB (Red, Green, Blue)
 The RGB colour model is an additive color model in
which red, green, and blue light are added together
in various ways to reproduce a broad array of
colors. The name of the model comes from the
initials of the three additive primary colors, red,
green, and blue.
 The main purpose of the RGB colour model is for
the sensing, representation, and display of images
in electronic systems, such as televisions and
computers, though it has also been used in
conventional photography.
 RGB Colour Coordinate System
• Digital remote sensor data are usually displayed using
a Red-Green-Blue (RGB) colour coordinate system
based on additive colour theory and the three primary
colors of red, green, and blue.
• Additive colour theory is based on what happens when
light is mixed. For example, in additive colour theory
a pixel having RGB values of 255, 255, 255 produces a
bright white pixel.
• Subtractive colour theory is based on mixing
pigments. We would get a dark pigment if we mixed
equally high proportions of blue, green, and red
paint.
 Cont..

• RGB brightness values of 255, 255, 0 would yield

a bright yellow pixel, and RGB brightness values
of 255, 0, 0 would produce a bright red pixel.
RGB values of 0, 0, 0 yield a black pixel.
• Grays are produced along the gray line in the RGB
color coordinate system when equal proportions
of blue, green, and red are encountered (e.g., an
RGB of 127, 127, 127 produces a medium-gray
pixel on the screen or hard-copy device).
RGB Colour Coordinate System

Jensen, 2007
 8-bit Digital Image Processing
System
An 8-bit video image display system consists of several different
components:

The computer's central processing unit (CPU) accesses the remotely sensed
data from a mass storage device such as a hard disk, CD, or DVD and transfers
the bytes of information to the image processor display memory (i.e., a graphics
card). The image processor display memory typically consists of
> 256 megabytes of RAM. Each brightness value (BVi,j,k) at row (i) and
column (j) of a single band (k) of imagery is stored in the display memory. Each
line of data stored in the display memory is scanned every 1/30 second by a
read mechanism. This is faster than the human eye can detect, therefore we do
not perceive what is taking place. The brightness values encountered are
passed through a color look-up table that is read by a digital-to-analog (DAC)
converter. The red, green, and blue (RGB) analog output from the DAC
is used to stimulate the RGB phospors at each pixel location on the video
monitor.
 Intensity Hue Saturation (IHS)

 The RGB color coordinate system is the most widely

used display system for scientific visualization.
However, alternatives exist- such as the IHS system.
 Intensity, hue and saturation are aspects of color in the
red, green, and blue ( RGB ) scheme.
 These terms are most often used in reference to the
color of each pixel in a cathode ray tube (CRT) display.•Colour (hue).
 All possible colors can be specified according to •Purity (saturation).
intensity, hue and saturation (also called brilliance ), •Brightness (intensity).
just as colors can be represented in terms of the R, G,
and B components.
 The IHS coordinates are derived using the RGB colour
cube with axes redefined according to the shade of
colour, the purity of colour and the brightness of colour.
 Artists tend to describe scenes not in terms of red, green, and
blue, but as hue, saturation, and intensity (HSI). We do not
see things as quantities of primary colors mixed in certain
proportions.
 We see the brilliant orange of a sunset or the dark, muted
greens of a forest. We see things as colors, or hues, that
either have a washed-out look or have deep, rich tones.
 This means having low or high saturation, respectively. A
bright afternoon sun gives everything a high-intensity look,
while dusk provides dark images of low intensity.
 Intensity

 Intensity is a relative expression of the energy output of a

visible light source.
 It can be expressed as a total energy value (different for
each of the curves in the diagram), or as the amplitude at
the wavelength where the intensity is greatest (identical for
all three curves).
 In the RGB color model, the amplitudes of red, green, and
blue for a particular color can each range from 0 to 100
percent of full brilliance.
 These levels are represented by the range of decimal
numbers from 0 to 255, or hexadecimal numbers from 00 to
FF.
Hue
 Most sources of visible light contain energy over a band of
wavelengths.
 Hue is the wavelength within the visible-light spectrum at
which the energy output from a source is greatest.
 This is shown as the peak of the curves in the
accompanying graph of intensity versus wavelength.
 In this example, all three colors have the same hue, with a
wavelength slightly longer than 500 nanometers, in the
yellow-green portion of the spectrum
Saturation
 Saturation is an expression for the relative bandwidth of the
visible output from a light source.
 In the diagram, the saturation is represented by the
steepness of the slopes of the curves.
 Here, the red curve represents a color having low saturation,
the green curve represents a color having greater saturation,
and the blue curve represents a color with fairly high
saturation.
 As saturation increases, colors appear more "pure." As
saturation decreases, colors appear more "washed-out."
Intensity, Hue, Saturation (HIS)
Color Coordinate System

Jensen, 2007
Intensity-Hue-Saturation (HIS) Substitution:

The vertical axis represents intensity (I) which varies from black
(0) to white (255) and is not associated with any color. The
circumference of the sphere represents hue (H), which is the
dominant wavelength of color. Hue values begin with 0 at the
midpoint of red tones and increase counterclockwise around the
circumference of the sphere to conclude with 255 adjacent to 0.
Saturation (S) represents the purity of the color and ranges from
0 at the center of the color sphere to 255 at the circumference. A
saturation of 0 represents a completely impure color in which all
wavelengths are equally represented and which the eye will
perceive as a shade of gray that ranges from white to black
depending on intensity.
Relationship Between RGB and IHS Colour Systems
 Intensity-Hue-Saturation (IHS) Substitution:
IHS values can be derived from the RGB values through
the transformation equations:

I  R GB
GB
H Substitute
I  3B Intensity data

I  3B from the IHS

S transformation for
one of the bands,
I e.g., RGB = 4, I, 2
Jensen, 2007
Exercises

 Describe the followings :

 RGB Colour Coordinate System
 IHS Colour Coordinate System
 Relationship between RGB and IHS
Colour Coordinates System
 Summary
 The intensity, hue and saturation transform is useful in two
ways: first as method of image enhancement and secondly as a
means of combining co-registered images from different
sources.
 The advantage of the IHS system is that it is a more precise
representation of human colour vision than the RGB system.
This transformation has been quite useful for geological
applications.