Components of Image Processing System
The figure below show the basic components of digital image processing system.
1. Image Sensors
With reference to sensing, two elements are required to acquire digital image.
The first is a physical device that is sensitive to the energy radiated by the object we wish to image and second is specialized image processing hardware.
2. Specialize image processing hardware
It consists of the digitizer just mentioned, plus hardware that performs other primitive operations such as an arithmetic logic unit, which performs arithmetic such addition and subtraction and logical operations in parallel on images.
3. Computer
It is a general purpose computer and can range from a PC to a supercomputer depending on the application.
In dedicated applications, sometimes specially designed computer are used to achieve a required level of performance.
4. Software
It consist of specialized modules that perform specific tasks a well designed package also includes capability for the user to write code, as a minimum, utilizes the specialized module.
More sophisticated software packages allow the integration of these modules.
5. Mass Storage
This capability is a must in image processing applications. An image of size 1024 x1024 pixels, in which the intensity of each pixel is an 8- bit quantity requires one megabytes of storage space if the image is not compressed.
Image processing applications falls into three principal categories of storage.
- Short term storage for use during processing
- On line storage for relatively fast retrieval
- Archival storage such as magnetic tapes and disks.
6. Image Displays
Image displays in use today are mainly color TV monitors. These monitors are driven by the outputs of image and graphics displays cards that are an integral part of computer system.
7. Hardcopy Devices
The devices for recording image includes laser printers, film cameras, heat sensitive devices inkjet units and digital units such as optical and CD ROM disk.
Films provide the highest possible resolution, but paper is the obvious medium of choice for written applications.
8. Networking
It is almost a default function in any computer system in use today because of the large amount of data inherent in image processing applications.
The key consideration in image transmission bandwidth.