Image processing Consider the basic aspects of image formation.

The picture we see every time is composed of grid of square shaped structures, each of which contains a single colour. Each square is called a Pixel (picture element). And often we come across a term called Quantisation. Here the continuous colours in an image are mapped to a finite, discrete set of colours. In image processing, we use computer algorithms to process digital images. The advantage of digital over analog image processing is that it allows a much wider range of algorithms to be applied to the input data and can avoid problems such as the build-up of noise and signal distortion during processing. Since images are defined over two dimensions (perhaps more) digital image processing may be modelled in the form of Multidimensional System. Practical Applications of Image Processing: We find lots of practical applications in the field of image as well as video processing. Some of them are: In digital cameras we find an image processing chip that converts the raw data from the image sensor into a colour corrected image in a standard image file format. These images are further processed to improvise their quality. Image Compositing: Here we combine parts from separate images to form a new image and this requires relative positions, orientations, and scales to be correct. Also lighting of objects must be consistent within the separate images. Few other criterions include Brightness, contrast, colour balance, and saturation must match. Noise colour, amplitude, and patterns must be seamless. Image Compression: A lot of techniques are involved in image compression categorised into lossy and lossless compression. An image taken can be compressed to desired level mainly to reduce the no of bits required to represent the image. Compression is mainly achieved by removing the basic data redundancies. Image Segmentation: Segmentation means dividing an image into its constituents regions or objects. It allows us to extract the objects in an image. After a successful segmentation of an image, the contours of objects can be extracted using edge detection and/or border following techniques. A simple approach to image segmentation is to start from some pixels (seeds) representing distinct image regions and to grow them, until they cover the entire image. For region growing we need a rule describing a growth mechanism and a rule checking the homogeneity of the regions after each growth step. A typical application of image segmentation:

3D Imaging: A basic task in 3-D image processing is the segmentation of an image which classifies voxels/pixels into objects or groups. 3-D image segmentation makes it possible to create 3-D rendering for multiple objects and perform quantitative analysis for the size, density and other parameters of detected objects.

Data Clustering: Clustering of numerical data forms the basis of many classification and system modelling algorithms. The purpose of clustering is to identify natural groupings of data from a large data set to produce a concise representation of a system's behaviour.