The Wonder of Images — An Overview to Image Processing
Memories are commemorated through the realms of the human mind. Our brains could only keep and process information so much that it tends to gradually forget fragments of these as time goes by. Fortunately, images were invented! Images keep us connected with our fond memories, through and through. But, enough of this sentimental babble. What point am I trying to get through?
While it is true that images are indeed keepers of history, is that their only purpose? Are they only good enough for photo albums that our parents would keep for personal consumption? Are they only fit for picture frames that are hung against our walls for people to see? Are they just capable of those?
Well, I would not be continuing this blog any further if the answer to those questions is yes, right? So, definitely, it is a big NO! You may ask then, why so? Spare me a few minutes of your time to tell you what I mean.
Image Processing
Images are more than proxies for memories. Each image contains a bounty of information which can be analyzed by our computers. This mode analysis is formalized as digital image processing. Technical analysis of images started as early as 1920 with the discovery of the Bartlane cable transmission service which was used to transmit newspaper images across the Atlantic. Then a breakthrough occurred in the field when Aaron Klug, an English molecular biologist, discovered the digital image processing of two-dimensional images. Since then, research on the manipulation of images catapulted to great numbers aided with the advancements in computing algorithms brought about by industrial revolutions.
Why dwell on image processing?
Simply put, the world’s future is all about multimedia information processing whether we like it or not. Day by day, images are produced at a faster rate than the human population. Analyzing these images is the first step to understanding advanced knowledge of greater scale and form — computer vision. Aside from that, image processing paves way for various applications. Stipulated as follows are some its notable contributions in the field of healthcare, retail, and transportation respectively:
Healthcare
Medicine
For cancer and other disorder identifications, many techniques are used such as segmentation and texture analysis. In the field of bioinformatics, telemedicine, and the format less compression techniques are used to communicate the image remotely
Medical Imaging Systems
These systems function involve the use of signals from patients to produce desired images. Advancements in this area include X-Rays, computed tomography (CT), nuclear medicine, and ultrasound.
Retail
Product Defect detection
Enables industries to remove defective products from the production line through training of machine learning models for detection. This approach helps various vendors to enhance their product listings and can grow rapidly in the market.
Enhanced Visual Appeal of Products
Image processing allows images to be further enhanced according to how you want them to look like or how you want products to be marketed (e.g. images can be smoothened, sharpened and remolded for a better customer visual appearance)
Efficient Inventory Management
Retailers could train machine vision algorithms to detect when certain types and brands of products are picked up from the shelves. These systems would instead alert personnel in back rooms to restock the shelves with the appropriate products.
Transportation
Advanced Driver Assistance Systems
This is a collision avoidance system. Its application is not designed to take control of a vehicle. Rather, increase safety by providing important information to the driver of the vehicle and surrounding traffic conditions the vehicle to warn drivers of danger as soon as possible.
Lane Departure Warning System
In road-transport system, LDWS is a machine vision-based technology that determines mechanism designed to warn a driver when the vehicle begins to move out of this lane. For illustration, a video sensor is placed in the windshield, typically integrated beside the rear mirror, then is used for tracking the vehicle with respect to the lane markings.
Amazing, right? Indeed, our images can go a long way! Now that you already have an idea what our images are capable of, watch out for the next article on preliminaries of image manipulation. Cheers!
