o Elements of Visual Perception

o Image sampling and quantization

o Representation of Digital Images
o Basic relationship between pixels

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• End product of vision
• Not a simple translation of what we see on the retina
• The way brain interprets what we see
• Different for different animals
• Father of visual perception -Hermann von Helmholtz
• We see images as a whole rather than in parts

Visual perception is a function of our eyes and brain

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• DIP is built on a foundation of mathematical and
probabilistic formulations

• human intuition and analysis play a central role in the

choice of one technique versus another

• Mechanics and parameters related to how images are formed in

the eye

• Physical limitations of human vision

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• Roughly spherical in shape diameter
of approximately 20 mm

• Bounded by three distinct layers of

tissue : cornea and sclera outer cover;
the choroid and the retina.

• The transparent cornea, - admits

light into the interior of the eye and
bends the light rays to a focus.

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• The surface of the cornea -is kept
moist and dust-free -by the secretion
from the tear glands.

• Continuous with the cornea, the sclera

is an opaque membrane that encloses
the remainder of the optic globe

• The outer layer,-the sclera -extremely

tough.

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• The choroid lies directly below the
sclera.

• This membrane contains a network of

blood

• Anterior extreme of the choroid is

divided into the ciliary body and the
iris diaphragm.

• Iris diaphragm contracts or expands to

control the amount of light that enters
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the eye
• The central opening of the iris (the
pupil) varies in diameter from
approximately 2 to 8 mm.

• The front of the iris contains the

visible pigment of the eye, whereas
the back contains a black pigment

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• Lens - Made up of concentric layers of
fibrous cells and is suspended by fibers
that attach to the ciliary body

• 60 to 70% water. 6% fat

• shape changes to adjust focus. Focal
length – 17mm to 14 mm

• The human lens- increases in weight and

thickness with age -becomes less elastic

• Absorbs approximately 8% of the visible

light spectrum, with relatively higher
absorption at shorter wavelengths 10
• The inner coat of the eye -the retina -
lines the inside of the wall’s entire
posterior portion

• Contains the visual sensing apparatus

two cells – rods and cones

• Rods- 75 to 150 millions

• Cones- colour about 7 millions

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• Fine details with cones because each
one is connected to its own nerve end.

• Located in the central portion of retina -

fovea

• Cone vision is called photopic or

bright-light vision

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• Several rods are connected to a single
nerve end reduce the amount of detail

• Give overall picture of the field of

view.

• They are not involved in color vision

and are sensitive to low levels of
illumination.

• Scotopic or dim-light vision

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• Blind spot the absence of receptors
area
• Receptor density is measured in
degrees from the fovea

• Cones are most dense in the center of

the retina (in the area of the fovea)

• Rods increase in density from the

center out to approx. 20° off axis &
then decrease in density out to the
extreme periphery of the retina
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• Principal difference b/w the lens of the eye & an ordinary
optical lens is that the former is flexible

• Radius of curvature the anterior surface > its posterior

surface
• Shape is controlled by tension in the fibers of the ciliary
body
• Focus on distant objects, the controlling muscles cause the
lens to be relatively flattened

• These muscles allow the lens to become thicker in order to

focus on objects near the eye 17
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• The eye can adapt to an enormous range
(in the order of 1010) of light intensity, from
scotopic threshold to the glare limit

• Subjective brightness (perceived intensity)

is a log function of the light intensity
incident on the eye

• In photopic vision alone, the range is aboutt

106

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•Visual system cannot operate over
such a huge range simultaneously;
instead, it changes its overall
sensitivity

•E.g.: if the eye is adapted to

brightness level Ba, the short
intersecting curve represents the range
of subjective brightness perceived by
the eye. The range is rather restricted,
i.e. below level Bb all stimuli are
perceived as black
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• Ability of the eye to discriminate b/w
changes in brightness at any specific
adaptation level

• Look at a flat, uniformly illuminated large area,

e.g. a large opaque glass illuminated from
behind by a light source with intensity I
• Add an increment of illumination ΔIc, in the
form of a short duration flash as a circle in
the middle.
• Vary ΔIc & observe the result. The results
should move from ”no perceivable
change” to ”perceived change”. 21
• Weber ratio : ΔIc/I

• Good brightness discrimination

ΔIc/I is small

• Bad brightness discrimination

ΔIc/I is large

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• Brightness discrimination is poor
(the Weber ratio is large) at low
levels of illumination

• Improves significantly (the ratio

decreases) as background
illumination increases

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• Brightness is not a simple
function of intensity

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• Visual system tends to undershoot
or overshoot around the
boundary of regions of different
intensities

• The intensity of the stripes is

constant but perceive a brightness
pattern is strongly scalloped near
the boundaries

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• Which small square is the darkest
one ?

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• Small squares have exactly the
same intensity

• Appear darker as the background

becomes brighter
•

• Region’s perceived
brightness does not depend
simply on its intensity

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• Based on perception

• Perception- takes place by relative excitation of light

receptors

• Subjective brightness (i.e. perceived intensity) is a log

function of the light intensity incident on the eye

• Range of brightness varies b/w – 0.001 to 0.1 milli ambiance

in log scale ( sctoscopic to photoscopic)

• Human visual system – will not operate simultaneously in

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these ranges
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• Radiance – total amount of energy that flows from a source

• Luminance – measure of amount of energy an observer perceives

• Brightness – Subjective descriptor of light perception

• Violet – 400 nm , red 700nm, green – 600nm

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• Image a 2 D function of intensity of light - f(x,y)

• When an image is generated from a physical process, its values

are proportional to energy radiated

• f(x, y) must be nonzero and finite

• 0 < f(x,y) < ∞

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• f(x, y) may be characterized by two components:

• The amount of source illumination incident on the scene

being viewed – Illumination component : i(x, y)

• The amount of illumination reflected by the objects in the

scene – Reflectance component : r(x,y)

• f(x,y) = i(x,y) r(x,y)

• 0< i(x,y) < ∞
• 0< r(x,y) < 1
• 0- total absorbtion 34

• 1- total reflection
• Intensity of monochrome at any coordinate (x1, y1) – gray level ‘L
• L= f (x1, y1)
• L min ≤ L ≤ L max
• Gray scale : (L min ≤ L ≤ L max)
• Common practice [0,L-1]
• (L-1) – white, 0 black
• In theory, the only requirement on Lmin is that it be positive, and on
Lmax that it be finite.
• In practice, Lmin= imin*rmin and
Lmax= imax*rmax

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• An image continuous w. r. t x- and y-also in amplitude.

• To convert it to digital form, sample the function

In both coordinates and in amplitude.

• Digitizing the coordinate values is called sampling.

Digitizing the amplitude values is called quantization

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• Spatial resolution is the smallest
discernible detail in an image

• Sampling is the principal factor

determining the spatial resolution
of an image

• Resolution is the smallest number

of discernible line pairs per unit
distance 41
• Gray-level resolution refers to
the smallest discernible change in
gray level (highly subjective)

• The most common number is 8

bits &16 bits

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• Effect of varying no of samples

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• Check board pattern

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256x256 128x128

32x32
64x64

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 256
128

64 32

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Ridgelike structures develop as gray level is decreased: false contours

Neighbors of a Pixel
Adjacency, Connectivity, Regions,
and Boundaries
Distance Measures

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• A pixel p at coordinates (x, y) has two
horizontal and vertical neighbors

• whose coordinates are given by

(x+1, y), (x-1, y), (x, y+1), (x, y-1)

• Some of the neighbors of p lie outside

the digital image if (x, y) is on the
border of the image. (x,y+1)
(x-1,y) p (x+1,y)
(x,y-1) 49
• The four diagonal neighbors of p
have coordinates

• (x+1, y+1), (x+1, y-1), (x-1, y+1),

(x-1, y-1)

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(x-1,y+1) (x,y+1) (x+1,y+1)

(x-1,y) p (x+1,y)

(x-1,y-1) (x,y-1) (x+1,y-1)

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• Concept of Connectivity between pixels simplifies digital
image concepts such as regions and boundaries
•

• Two pixels are connected, if they are neighbors and if their

gray levels satisfy a specified criterion of similarity

• V will be used to denote the set of gray-level values used to

define adjacency
•

• Ex: For a binary image V={0,1}

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• 4-adjacency: Two pixels p and q with values
from V are 4-adjacent if q is in the set N4(p)
•
• 8-adjacency: Two pixels p and q with values
from V are 8-adjacent if q is in the set N8(p)
•
• m-adjacency (mixed adjacency): Two pixels p
and q with values from V are m-adjacent if
 q is in N4(p), or
 q is in ND(p) and the set “N4(p) ∩ N4(q)” has no
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pixels whose values are from V

(a) Arrangement of pixels; (b) pixels that are 8-adjacent (shown dashed)
to the center pixel; (c) m-adjacency
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• Digital Path : A (digital) path (or curve) from pixel p with
coordinates (x, y) to pixel q with coordinates (s, t) is a
sequence of distinct pixels with coordinates
(x0 , y0 ),(x1 , y1 ),........,(xn , yn )

Where (x0 , y0 )=(x,y); (xn , yn )= (s,t)

• And pixels (xi , yi ) and (xi-1 , yi-1 ) are adjacent for 1 ≤ i ≤ n

“n” is the length of the path

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• If (x0 , y0 )=(xn , yn ), then the path is a closed path
• For pixels p, q, and z, with coordinates (x, y), (s, t), and (v,
w), respectively,

• D is a distance function or metric if

 D(p, q) ≥ 0 (D(p, q)=0 if p=q)

 D(p, q)=D(q, p) and

 D(p, z) ≤ D(p, q)+D(q, z)

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• The Euclidean distance between p and q is
defined as
•

• For this distance measure, the pixels

having a distance less than or equal to
some value r from (x, y) are the points
contained in a disk of radius r centered
at (x, y)

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•
• The D4 distance (also called city-block
distance) between p and q is defined as

• D4(p, q) = |x - s| + |y – t|
•
• In this case, the pixels having a D4
distance from (x, y) less than or
• equal to some value r form a diamond
centered at (x, y).

• For example, the pixels with D4 distance

≤ 2 from (x, y) (the center point) form the
following contours of constant distance:
•
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• The D8 distance between p and q is
defined as
• D8(p, q) = max(|x - s| , |y – t|)
• Chessboard distance
• In this case, the pixels with D8 distance
from (x, y) less than or equal to some
value r form a square centered at (x, y)

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• The Dm distance between two points is
defined as the shortest m-path between the
points.

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