Image Processing Reference
In-Depth Information
6
Digital Image Formats
6.1
Are We There Yet?
Digital imaging is where all the technologies combine. It is also a domain where totally
original material is created. Some of the animation that is realized with computer
systems could not be done any other way. Nevertheless, digital imaging owes a lot to
video and film before it. But this is not the end of the journey. It is only the end of the
beginning.
6.2
The Power of Convergence
The convergence of computers, movie film, and TV systems provides opportunities to
use the power of digital imagery to convert and combine content from celluloid and
video. Completely new content is synthesized from scratch. The movies that Pixar
makes originated wholly inside the computer and did not start as film or video. Digital
imagery is now so sophisticated that it has become a completely new source of moving
images.
In this chapter we examine computer displays and the revolution in computer
graphics that has taken place since the 1960s when Dr. Ivan Sutherland developed his vec-
tor-based graphics systems.
Summarizing screen sizes will get some of the major differences between digital-
imaging formats out of the way first. The sizes range from small handheld formats up to
digital-cinema formats. The artifacts that affect the quality of the imaging are important,
and there are opportunities to minimize them. Dithering techniques are also impor-
tant. They might have been used in the image-creation process and will have serious
implications for compression systems. There are several techniques that will compro-
mise the quality and show up in the output. Digital camera functionality is important
since that may be how you originate some content. At the end of the chapter we look
forward to some interesting work being done to increase the dynamic range of the
imaging model. This is likely to have a profound effect on the image quality we are able
to source.
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