PROGRESS IN DIGITAL IMAGE PROCESSING, 1969

Abstract

The results of the first complete tests of the Optical Sciences Center digital image processing facility are reported. The instrumentation for digitizing film transparencies is operating well enough to provide suitable in- puts to the computer program IMPR(C, which processes (restores) the degraded image. Some manual correction of the digital data is required (mainly for missing digits) before IMPROC can be used. Although IMPROC will be expanded and modified during future research efforts, the debugging of its present form is essentially completed. First attempts at restoration of a defocused image show contrast enhancement and edge sharpening. Current techniques for displaying the processed images, however, are slow and have a limited gray scale. The best technique to date, which uses the computer's plotter to produce nine distinguishable gray levels, requires 1 hour to produce a 100 x100 matrix of points. A CRT film display device, driven by a digital computer, is being developed to solve this problem. Current and future research efforts are described.