Human Visual System

• In many image processing applications, the objective is to

help a human observer perceive the visual information in an
image. Therefore, it is important to understand the human
visual system.

• The human visual system consists mainly of the eye (image

sensor or camera), optic nerve (transmission path), and brain
(image information processing unit or computer).

• It is one of the most sophisticated image processing and

analysis systems.

• Its understanding would also help in the design of efficient,

accurate and effective computer/machine vision systems.
Cross-section of the Human Eye
 Cross-section of the Human Eye

• Nearly spherical with a diameter of 20 mm (approx.).

• Cornea --- Outer tough transparent membrane, covers

anterior surface.

• Sclera --- Outer tough opaque membrane, covers rest of the

optic globe.

• Choroid --- Contains blood vessels, provides nutrition.

• Iris --- Anterior portion of choroid, pigmented, gives color to

the eye.

• Pupil --- Central opening of the Iris, controls the amount of

light entering the eye (diameter varies from 2-8 mm).

• Lens --- Made of concentric layers of fibrous cells, contains

60-70% water.

• Retina --- Innermost layer, “screen” on which image is

formed by the lens when properly focussed, contains
photoreceptors (cells sensitive to light).
 Retinal Photoreceptors

• Two types of photoreceptors: rods and cones (light sensors).

• Cones --- 6-7 million, located in central portion of retina

(fovea), responsible for photopic vision (bright-light vision)
and color perception, can resolve fine details.

• Rods --- 75-150 million, distributed over the entire retina,

responsible for scotopic vision (dim-light vision), not color
sensitive, gives general overall picture (not details).

• Fovea --- Circular indentation in center of retina, about

1.5mm diameter, dense with cones.

• Photoreceptors around fovea responsible for spatial vision

(still images).

• Photoreceptors around the periphery responsible for detecting

motion.

• Blind spot --- Point on retina where optic nerve emerges,

devoid of photoreceptors.
Distribution of Rods and Cones on Retina
 Simple model for image formation

Object height S

Visual Angle A
Inverted
Visual Axis Projection P

Distance from Object d

Image Distance l

• Distance between center of lens and retina varies from 14-

17mm.

• Farther the object, smaller the refractive power of lens, larger

the focal length.

• From the geometry,

S 15
P=l = 17 = 2.55mm
d 100 

S
A = tan −1 = 8.53


d
 Brightness Adaptation
• Human eye can adapt to an enormous range of light intensity
levels, almost 10 orders of magnitude!
• Brightness perceived (subjective brightness) is a logarithmic
function of light intensity.
• Eye cannot simultaneously operate over such a range of
intensity levels.
• This is accomplished by changing the overall sensitivity ---
Brightness adaptation.

• At a given sensitivity, the eye can simultaneously

discriminate only a small number of intensity levels.
• For a given condition, the sensitivity of the visual system is
called the brightness adaptation level (ex. Ba ).
• At this adaptation, the eye can perceive brightness in the
range Bb (below which, everything is perceived as black) to Ba
(above which, the eye adapts to a different sensitivity).
 Brightness Discrimination
• The ability of the eye to discriminate between changes in
brightness levels is called brightness discrimination.
• The increment of intensity ∆Ic that is discriminable over a
background intensity of I is measured.
• Weber ratio --- it is the ratio ∆Ic / I.
• Small value of Weber ratio --- good brightness discrimination,
a small percentage change in intensity is discriminable.
• Large value of Weber ratio --- poor brightness discrimination,
a large percentage change in intensity is required.

• At high intensities the brightness discrimination is good

(small Weber ratio), than at low intensities.
Perceived Brightness is not a Simple Function of Light
Intensity
 Simultaneous Contrast
• A region’s perceived brightness is not a function of only its
intensity, but depends on the background intensity as well.
• All the center squares in the figure below have exactly the
same intensity. However, they appear to the human eye to
become darker as the background becomes brighter.

Optical Illusion
• The fills in non-existent information or wrongly perceives
geometrical properties of objects.
See Figure 2.9 of text for some examples
 Light and EM Spectrum

• Electromagnetic (EM) waves or radiation can be visualized as

propogating sinusoidal waves with some wavelength λ or
equivalently a frequency ν where λν = c , c being the velocity
of light.
• Equivalently, they can be considered as a stream of (massless)
particles (or photons), each having an energy E proportional
to its frequency ν; E = hν , where h is Planck’s constant.
• EM spectrum ranges from high energy radiations like gamma-
rays and X-rays to low energy radiations like radio waves.
• Light is a form of EM radiation that can be sensed or detected
by the human eye. It has a wavelength between 0.43 to 0.79
micron.
• Different regions of the visible light spectrum corresponds to
different colors.
• Light that is relatively balanced in all visible wavelengths
appears white (i.e. is devoid of any color). This is usually
referred to as achromatic or monochromatic light.
• The only attribute of such light is its intensity or amount. It is
denoted by a grayvalue or gray level. White corresponds to
the highest gray level and black to the lowest gray level.
• Three attributes are commonly used to describe a chromatic
light source:
o Radiance is the total amount of energy (in unit time) that
flows from the source and it is measure in Watt (W).
 o Luminance is a measure of the amount of light energy
that is received by an observer. It is measured in lumens
(lm).
o Brightness is a subjective descriptor of light measure (as
perceived by a human).
• The wavelength of EM radiation used depends on the
imaging application.
• In general, the wavelength of an EM wave required to “see”
an object must be of the same size (or smaller) than that of the
object.
• Besides EM waves, other sources of energy such as sound
waves (ultra sound imaging) and electron beams (electron
microscopy) are also used in imaging.
 Image Sensing and Acquisition

• A typical image formation system consists of an

“illumination” source, and a sensor.
• Energy from the illumination source is either reflected or
absorbed by the object or scene, which is then detected by the
sensor.
• Depending on the type of radiation used, a photo-converter
(e.g., a phosphor screen) is typically used to convert the
energy into visible light.
• Sensors that provide digital image as output, the incoming
energy is transformed into a voltage waveform by a sensor
material that is responsive to the particular energy radiation.
• The voltage waveform is then digitized to obtain a discrete
output.
• Read Sections 2.3.1-2.3.3 for some more details about
sensors.
 Mathematical Representation of Images
• An image is a two-dimensional signal (light intensity) and can
be represented as a function f (x, y).

• The coordinates (x, y) represent the spatial location and the

value of the function f (x, y) is the light intensity at that point.
f ( x, y ) = i ( x, y ) r ( x, y )

• i(x, y) is the incident light intensity and r(x, y) is the

reflectance.

• We usually refer to the point (x, y) as a pixel (from picture

element) and the value f (x, y) as the grayvalue (or graylevel)
of image f at (x, y).

• Images are of two types: continuous and discrete.

• A continuous image is a function of two independent

variables, that take values in a continuum.
Example: The intensity of a photographic image recorded on
a film is two-dimensional function f (x, y) of two real-valued
variables x and y.

• A discrete image is a function of two independent variables,

that take values over a discrete set (ex. an integer grid).
Example: The intensity of a discretized 256 x 256
photographic image recorded on a CDROM is two-
dimensional function f (m, n) of two integer-valued variables
m and n taking values m, n = 0, 1, 2, …, 255.
• Similarly, grayvalues can be either real-valued or integer-
valued. Smaller grayvalues denote darker shades of gray
(smaller brightness levels).

Sampling
• For computer processing, a continuous-image must be spatially
discretized. This process is called sampling.

• A continuous image f (x, y) is approximated by equally spaced

samples arranged in a M x N array:

f (0, N − 1)
 


f (0,0) f (0,1) 

f (1,0) f (1,1) 

f (1, N − 1)
f ( x, y ) ≈ 

   

f ( M − 1,0) f ( M − 1,1) f ( M − 1, N − 1)


M ×N

• The right-hand side is normally referred to as a discrete image.

• The sampling process may be viewed as partitioning the real xy plane

with a grid whose vertices are elements in the Cartesian product Z x
Z, where Z is the set of integers.

• If ∆x and ∆y are separation of grid points in the x and y directions,

respectively, we have

f (m, n) = f (m∆x, n∆y ), for m = 0,1, , M − 1, and n = 0,1, , N − 1.

• The sampling process requires specification of ∆x and ∆y, or

equivalently M and N (for a given image dimensions).
Effect of spatial resolution
 Effect of spatial resolution

256 x
512 x
256
512

64 x
128 x 64
128

32 x
16 x
32
16
 Effect of graylevel quantization

256 64

16 5

3 2