Today, one of the most shared content in social media is images. Sometimes users share their selfie’s and sometimes share a landscape picture. Users are pre-processing many of these images, especially those shared on Instagram.
How does these process happen?
Image processing means mathematical operations and signal processing techniques are applied to image to obtain another image. The resulting image is generally similar to the initial image. The image is generally accepted as a two-dimensional mark. Images usually contain three color channels (RGB- Red Green Blue), and each pixel of these colors has a mathematical value.
Pixel values depend on how many bits of image depth are. For example, the maximum pixel value of an 8 bit picture is 28 -1 = 255. Also the minimum value is “0”. This value is different for each color channel. And it help that color tones are generated. As a result “0” means white, “255” means black.
With this method, images can be expressed mathematically. Thanks to it, mathematical functions can be applied to these images. Instagram filters are also created with mathematical functions.
Every process performed on images except İnstagram, is image processing based. For example operations in Photoshop, such as any cutting or resolution reduction.
Where are Image Processing Used?
Image processing techniques are used in many areas. Areas such as image sharpening and recovery, medical fields, image transmission and coding, machine vision, pattern recognition, video processing, microscopic imaging are examples.
- Often the aim of image recovery is to create a better image of the subject and get rid of the noise that has been caused by the past years.
- Imaging methods used in the medical field include Gamma-Ray imaging, PET scanning, X-ray imaging, computed tomography, and UV imaging. In these imaging techniques, image processing is used.
- Image processing methods are also used for image transmission. The first picture transmitted was sent from London to New York via cable and lasted for 3 hours.
- Nowadays 4k videos can be broadcast live. This fabulous technology is possible thanks to the compression algorithms developed using image processing. If the above picture is thought to have been sent within three hours, watching live 4k resolution videos shows how much progress is being made.
- Another field is a robotics. It is ensured that the robots communicate with the environment. As an example, autonomous vehicles understand mean of red light or green light via these techniques. Line following robots follow lines through image processing.
Image Processing and Pattern Recognition
Image processing is the base feature of pattern recognition. Many applications can be done using image processing techniques and pattern recognition together. For example facial recognition, license plate recognition, letter and text recognition, document falsification.
Image processing and pattern recognition are also used in the tag system in pictures on Facebook. The faces on the photo are compare with the ones on facebook database and the similar faces are suggested as labels.
In addition to this, plates and faces in street images in Google’s StreetView feature are also blurred using these methods. This help to protect personal privacy.
Image Processing in Robotic Field
Image processing is recently popular topic in the whole World. The topic such as robotics, medicine, computer vision, etc. are becoming increasingly popular day by day. Users can process the images by using C ++, Python and MATLAB’s ready-made functions.
