With rapid progress in Internet and digital imaging technology, there are more and more ways to easily create, publish, and distribute images. Considered the first book to focus on the relationship between digital imaging and privacy protection, Visual Cryptography and Secret Image Sharing is a complete introduction to novel security methods and sharing-control mechanisms used to protect against unauthorized data access and secure dissemination of sensitive information. Image data protection and image-based authentication techniques offer efficient solutions for controlling how private data and images are made available only to select people. Essential to the design of systems used to manage images that contain sensitive data-such as medical records, financial transactions, and electronic voting systems-the methods presented in this book are useful to counter traditional encryption techniques, which do not scale well and are less efficient when applied directly to image files. An exploration of the most prominent topics in digital imaging security, this book discusses: Potential for sharing multiple secrets Visual cryptography schemes-based either on the probabilistic reconstruction of the secret image, or on different logical operations for combining shared images Inclusion of pictures in the distributed shares Contrast enhancement techniques Color-image visual cryptography Cheating prevention Alignment problems for image shares Steganography and authentication In the continually evolving world of secure image sharing, a growing number of people are becoming involved as new applications and business models are being developed all the time. This contributed volume gives academicians, researchers, and professionals the insight of well-known experts on key concepts, issues, trends, and technologies in this emerging field.

This book encompasses a collection of topics covering recent advances that are important to the Arabic language in areas of natural language processing, speech and image analysis. This book presents state-of-the-art reviews and fundamentals as well as applications and recent innovations.The book chapters by top researchers present basic concepts and challenges for the Arabic language in linguistic processing, handwritten recognition, document analysis, text classification and speech processing. In addition, it reports on selected applications in sentiment analysis, annotation, text summarization, speech and font analysis, word recognition and spotting and question answering.Moreover, it highlights and introduces some novel applications in vital areas for the Arabic language. The book is therefore a useful resource for young researchers who are interested in the Arabic language and are still developing their fundamentals and skills in this area. It is also interesting for scientists who wish to keep track of the most recent research directions and advances in this area.

"John Russ is the master of explaining how image processing gets applied to real-world situations. With Brent Neal, he's done it again in Measuring Shape, this time explaining an expanded toolbox of techniques that includes useful, state-of-the-art methods that can be applied to the broad problem of understanding, characterizing, and measuring shape. He has a gift for finding the kernel of a particular algorithm, explaining it in simple terms, then giving concrete examples that are easily understood. His perspective comes from solving real-world problems and separating out what works in practice from what is just an abstract curiosity." -Tom Malzbender, Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, Palo Alto, California, USA Useful for those working in fields including industrial quality control, research, and security applications, Measuring Shape is a handbook for the practical application of shape measurement. Covering a wide range of shape measurements likely to be encountered in the literature and in software packages, this book presents an intentionally diverse set of examples that illustrate and enable readers to compare methods used for measurement and quantitative description of 2D and 3D shapes. It stands apart through its focus on examples and applications, which help readers quickly grasp the usefulness of presented techniques without having to approach them through the underlying mathematics. An elusive concept, shape is a principal governing factor in determining the behavior of objects and structures. Essential to recognizing and classifying objects, it is the central link in manmade and natural processes. Shape dictates everything from the stiffness of a construction beam, to the ability of a leaf to catch water, to the marketing and packaging of consumer products. This book emphasizes techniques that are quantitative and produce a meaningful yet compact set of numerical values that can be used for statistical analysis, comparison, correlation, classification, and identification. Written by two renowned authors from both industry and academia, this resource explains why users should select a particular method, rather than simply discussing how to use it. Showcasing each process in a clear, accessible, and well-organized way, they explore why a particular one might be appropriate in a given situation, yet a poor choice in another. Providing extensive examples, plus full mathematical descriptions of the various measurements involved, they detail the advantages and limitations of each method and explain the ways they can be implemented to discover important correlations between shape and object history or behavior. This uncommon assembly of information also includes sets of data on real-world objects that are used to compare the performance and utility of the various presented approaches.

Spectacular advances during the last decade have altered the related disciplines of computing and telecommunications beyond all recognition. The developments in the"enabling technologies,"which have made these advances possible, have been less obvious to the casual observer. The subject of this book is one of these technologies--the coding of still images and picture sequences (video).
Digital Compression of Still Images and Video is general in approach and covers all the recognized coding algorithms; explaining their basic theory in enough detail that the reader will understand the principles involved. Results which have been achieved with coding algorithms by researchers in all parts of the world are also discussed. A brief historical review of the area is included to orient those new to the field, and the work is supported by references spanning the period from the earliest work on time/frequency analysis, to the latest topic of research interest--image sequence transmission using asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) techniques.
This book will make an excellent reference for graduates and researchers working on image coding and transmission, and will also be of use to those in the related areas of computer vision and multimedia developments. It is essential reading for the rapidly increasing number of technical and professional staff in the industrial environment who, maybe for the first time, are coming to grips with image coding.
Key Features
* Provides complete and up-to-date coverage of all digital image and video coding (compression) techniques
* Includes more than 850 references covering relevant work from the 1940s to the present
* Presents information on new directions in coding
* Contains details on current coding standards
* Describes and explains all algorithms in use for image coding

Design Computing will help you understand the rapidly evolving relationship between computing, designers, and the many different environments they create or work in. The book introduces the topic of design computing, and covers the basics of hardware and software, so you don't need to be an expert. Topics include the fundamentals of digital representation, programming and interfaces for design; the shifting landscape of opportunity and expectation in practice and pedagogy; placing sensors in buildings to measure performance; and the challenge of applying information effectively in design. The book also includes additional reading for those who wish to dig deeper into the subject. Design Computing will provide you with a greater awareness of the issues that permeate the field, opportunities for you to investigate, and perhaps motivation to push the boundaries.

The rapid advancements in image communication technologies are documented in the book series, Advances in Image Communication. Each publication provides an in-depth exploration of an intrinsic element of the multi-disciplinary field and together they form a comprehensive overview of the whole.

This volume, the fifth in the series, examines the definition, study and use of the wavelet transform in communications for two-dimensional (2-D) digital signals. The transform is used for signal reorganization before compression and the trade-off between these two steps and the whole compression process is discussed.

The five chapters specifically present the theory of wavelets applied to images, then applications of compression of still images and sequences. Chapter 1 introduces biorthogonal bases of compactly supported wavelets: this generalization of orthonormal wavelet theory allows the use of linear phase filters. A non rectangular wavelet representation of 2-D signals is developed in the second chapter: the properties usually used with wavelets, phase, linearity, and regularity are discussed. Chapter 3 is composed of three parts: a description of commonly used biorthogonal wavelets; a presentation of vector quantization algorithms; a consideration of lattice vector quantization followed by a discussion of the bit allocation procedure (with experimental results given). The fourth chapter deals with a region-based discrete wavelet transform for image coding. Chapter 5 investigates the transmission of image sequences: wavelet transforms and motion estimation are detailed in a multiconstraint approach of image sequence coding.

- the book can be used by beginners in the field, tracking from basic principles to how to bend the rules, in reader-friendly language throughout - the book is based on a popular blog which dovetails as a fantastic companion website: https://questionsindataviz.com/ - the author is a very experienced and well-respected practitioner in the field, with a good-size following on social media: https://twitter.com/theneilrichards

Image communication technologies have advanced rapidly in recent years and the book series, Advances in Image Communication is dedicated to documenting these developments. Third in the series, this publication contributes as effectively as its forerunners to the multidisciplinary overview afforded by the series as a whole. At the same time, it stands alone as a comprehensive synopsis of its own particular area of interest.

The book specifically explores two complementary topics, namely:

the coding algorithms made to compress the data rate of digital moving-picture sequences (video-telephony, television TV] and high-definition television HDTV]) and

the transmission on Asynchronous Transfer Mode ATM] networks (packet-switching transmission media). It provides an in-depth view of the current state-of-the-art and endeavors to stimulate increasing research efforts for the future.

If Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs represented the Animation industry's infancy, Ed Hooks thinks that the current production line of big-budget features is its artistically awkward adolescence. While a well-funded marketing machine can conceal structural flaws, uneven performances and superfluous characters, the importance of crafted storytelling will only grow in importance as animation becomes a broader, more accessible art form. Craft Notes for Animators analyses specific films - including Frozen and Despicable Me - to explain the secrets of creating truthful stories and believable characters. It is an essential primer for the for tomorrow's industry leaders and animation artists.

This book provides a deep understanding of state-of-art methods for simulation of heterogeneous crowds in computer graphics. It will cover different aspects that are necessary to achieve plausible crowd behaviors. The book will be a review of the most recent literature in this field that can help professionals and graduate students interested in this field to get up to date with the latest contributions, and open problems for their possible future research. The chapter contributors are well known researchers and practitioners in the field and they include their latest contributions in the different topics required to achieve believable heterogeneous crowd simulation. Provides crowd simulation methodology to populate virtual environments, for video games or any kind of applications that requires believable multi-agent behavior Presents the latest contributions on crowd simulation, animation, planning, rendering and evaluation with detailed algorithms for implementation purposes Includes perspectives of both academic researchers and industrial practitioners with reference to open source solutions and commercial applications, where appropriate

The design and construction of three-dimensional 3-D] object recognition systems has long occupied the attention of many computer vision researchers. The variety of systems that have been developed for this task is evidence both of its strong appeal to researchers and its applicability to modern manufacturing, industrial, military, and consumer environments. 3-D object recognition is of interest to scientists and engineers in several different disciplines due to both a desire to endow computers with robust visual capabilities, and the wide applications which would benefit from mature and robust vision systems. However, 3-D object recognition is a very complex problem, and few systems have been developed for actual production use; most existing systems have been developed for experimental use by researchers only. This edited collection of papers summarizes the state of the art in 3-D object recognition using examples of existing 3-D systems developed by leading researchers in the field. While most chapters describe a complete object recognition system, chapters on biological vision, sensing, and early processing are also included. The volume will serve as a valuable reference source for readers who are involved in implementing model-based object recognition systems, stimulating the cross-fertilisation of ideas in the various domains.

The variety of topics on Image Communication is so broad that no one can be a specialist in all the topics, and the whole area is beyond the scope of a single volume, while the requirement of up to date information is ever increasing. This new closed-end book series is intended both as a comprehensive reference for those already active in the area of Image Communication, as well as providing newcomers with a foothold for commencing research. Each volume will comprise a state of the art work on the editor's/author's area of expertise, containing information until now scattered in many journals and proceedings.

Providing specific knowledge in the theory of image analysis, optics, fluorescence, and imaging devices in biomedical laboratories, this timely and indispensable volume focuses on the theory and applications of detection, morphometry, and motility measurement techniques applied to bacteria, fungi, yeasts and protozoa.

It has long been a dream to realize machines with flexible visual perception capability. Research on digital image processing by computers was initiated about 30 years ago, and since then a wide variety of image processing algorithms have been devised. Using such image processing algorithms and advanced hardware technologies, many practical ma chines with visual recognition capability have been implemented and are used in various fields: optical character readers and design chart readers in offices, position-sensing and inspection systems in factories, computer tomography and medical X-ray and microscope examination systems in hospitals, and so on. Although these machines are useful for specific tasks, their capabilities are limited. That is, they can analyze only simple images which are recorded under very carefully adjusted photographic conditions: objects to be recognized are isolated against a uniform background and under well-controlled artificial lighting. In the late 1970s, many image understanding systems were de veloped to study the automatic interpretation of complex natural scenes. They introduced artificial intelligence techniques to represent the knowl edge about scenes and to realize flexible control structures. The first author developed an automatic aerial photograph interpretation system based on the blackboard model (Naga1980). Although these systems could analyze fairly complex scenes, their capabilities were still limited; the types of recognizable objects were limited and various recognition vii viii Preface errors occurred due to noise and the imperfection of segmentation algorithms."

Written based on the author's own notes compiled over 18 years This manual is a learning tool focusing exclusively on the work of animators. explains the principles of physics applicable to any motion

While formal training and communication are a foundational approach to developing employees in the workplace, alternate reality games (ARGs) provide a framework for increased and sustained engagement within business organizations. ARGs are transmedia experiences designed to generate engagement and immersive learning beyond what is achieved in formal and conventional training and communication approaches. Alternate Reality Games: Gamification for Performance leads you through the fundamentals of ARGs. It includes a discussion of what is and is not an ARG, citing examples and identifying business challenges that can be addressed through ARGs. It presents case studies that illustrate the variety of forms that ARGs take and the issues to which they can be applied, such as improving performance and critical communication situations. It also gives guidelines for creating your own ARGs, reviewing the process and technological tools and considerations relevant to their creation. Presenting a thorough examination of the beneficial roles ARGs can play in the business environment as well as methods for creating effective ARGs, Alternate Reality Games: Gamification for Performance is an ideal reference for those approaching or considering ARGs for the first time as well as the training professional or professional game designer. It presents a comprehensive overview of the advantages of applying ARGs to the workplace as well as methods for designing and using them.

Principles of Synthetic Aperture Radar Imaging: A System Simulation Approach demonstrates the use of image simulation for SAR. It covers the various applications of SAR (including feature extraction, target classification, and change detection), provides a complete understanding of SAR principles, and illustrates the complete chain of a SAR operation. The book places special emphasis on a ground-based SAR, but also explains space and air-borne systems. It contains chapters on signal speckle, radar-signal models, sensor-trajectory models, SAR-image focusing, platform-motion compensation, and microwave-scattering from random media. While discussing SAR image focusing and motion compensation, it presents processing algorithms and applications that feature extraction, target classification, and change detection. It also provides samples of simulation on various scenarios, and includes simulation flowcharts and results that are detailed throughout the book. Introducing SAR imaging from a systems point of view, the author: Considers the recent development of MIMO SAR technology Includes selected GPU implementation Provides a numerical analysis of system parameters (including platforms, sensor, and image focusing, and their influence) Explores wave-target interactions, signal transmission and reception, image formation, motion compensation Covers all platform motion compensation and error analysis, and their impact on final image radiometric and geometric quality Describes a ground-based SFMCW system Principles of Synthetic Aperture Radar Imaging: A System Simulation Approach is dedicated to the use, study, and development of SAR systems. The book focuses on image formation or focusing, treats platform motion and image focusing, and is suitable for students, radar engineers, and microwave remote sensing researchers.

This book introduces the fundamental concepts of modern digital image processing. It aims to help the students, scientists, and practitioners to understand the concepts through clear explanations, illustrations and examples. The discussion of the general concepts is supplemented with examples from applications and ready-to-use implementations of concepts in MATLAB (R). Program code of some important concepts in programming language 'C' is provided. To explain the concepts, MATLAB (R) functions are used throughout the book. MATLAB (R) Version 9.3 (R2017b), Image Acquisition Toolbox Version 5.3 (R2017b), Image Processing Toolbox, Version 10.1 (R2017b) have been used to create the book material. Meant for students and practicing engineers, this book provides a clear, comprehensive and up-to-date introduction to Digital Image Processing in a pragmatic manner.

This book describes the technical problems and solutions for automatically recognizing and parsing a medical image into multiple objects, structures, or anatomies. It gives all the key methods, including state-of- the-art approaches based on machine learning, for recognizing or detecting, parsing or segmenting, a cohort of anatomical structures from a medical image. Written by top experts in Medical Imaging, this book is ideal for university researchers and industry practitioners in medical imaging who want a complete reference on key methods, algorithms and applications in medical image recognition, segmentation and parsing of multiple objects. Learn: Research challenges and problems in medical image recognition, segmentation and parsing of multiple objects Methods and theories for medical image recognition, segmentation and parsing of multiple objects Efficient and effective machine learning solutions based on big datasets Selected applications of medical image parsing using proven algorithms

The arrival of the digital age has created the need to be able to store, manage, and digitally use an ever-increasing amount of video and audio material. Thus, video cataloguing has emerged as a requirement of the times. Video Cataloguing: Structure Parsing and Content Extraction explains how to efficiently perform video structure analysis as well as extract the basic semantic contents for video summarization, which is essential for handling large-scale video data. This book addresses the issues of video cataloguing, including video structure parsing and basic semantic word extraction, particularly for movie and teleplay videos. It starts by providing readers with a fundamental understanding of video structure parsing. It examines video shot boundary detection, recent research on video scene detection, and basic ideas for semantic word extraction, including video text recognition, scene recognition, and character identification. The book lists and introduces some of the most commonly used features in video analysis. It introduces and analyzes the most popular shot boundary detection methods and also presents recent research on movie scene detection as another important and critical step for video cataloguing, video indexing, and retrieval. The authors propose a robust movie scene recognition approach based on a panoramic frame and representative feature patch. They describe how to recognize characters in movies and TV series accurately and efficiently as well as how to use these character names as cataloguing items for an intelligent catalogue. The book proposes an interesting application of highlight extraction in basketball videos and concludes by demonstrating how to design and implement a prototype system of automatic movie and teleplay cataloguing (AMTC) based on the approaches introduced in the book.

This state-of-the-art set of handbooks provides medical physicists with a comprehensive overview of the field of nuclear medicine. In addition to describing the underlying, fundamental theories of the field, it includes the latest research and explores the practical procedures, equipment, and regulations that are shaping the field and it's future. This set is split into three volumes, respectively titled: Instrumentation and Imaging Procedures; Modelling, Dosimetry and Radiation Protection; and Radiopharmaceuticals and Clinical Applications. Volume one, Instrumentation and Imaging Procedures, focuses primarily on providing a comprehensive review into the detection of radiation, beginning with an introduction to the history of nuclear medicine to the latest imaging technology. Volume two, Modelling, Dosimetry and Radiation Protection, explores the applications of mathematical modelling, dosimetry, and radiation protection in nuclear medicine. The third and final volume, Radiopharmaceuticals and Clinical Applications, highlights the production and application of radiopharmaceuticals and their role in clinical nuclear medicine practice. These books will be an invaluable resource for libraries, institutions, and clinical and academic medical physicists searching for a complete account of what defines nuclear medicine. The most comprehensive reference available providing a state-of-the-art overview of the field of nuclear medicine Edited by a leader in the field, with contributions from a team of experienced medical physicists, chemists, engineers, scientists, and clinical medical personnel Includes the latest practical research in the field, in addition to explaining fundamental theory and the field's history

A Unique, Cutting-Edge Approach to Optical Filter Design With more and more information being transmitted over fiber-optic lines, optical filtering has become crucial to the advanced functionality of today’s communications networks. Helping researchers and engineers keep pace with this rapidly evolving technology, this book presents digital processing techniques for optical filter design. This higher-level approach focuses on filter characteristics and enables readers to quickly calculate the filter response as well as tackle larger and more complex filters. The authors incorporate numerous theoretical and experimental results from the literature and discuss applications to a variety of systems—including the new wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) technology, which is fast becoming the preferred method for system upgrade and expansion. Special features of this book include:

• The theory underlying various architectures that can approximate any filter function
• Filter design techniques applicable to a broad range of materials systems—from silica to fiber to microelectromechanical (MEM) systems
• Design examples relevant to filters for WDM systems and planar waveguide devices
• 250 figures as well as problem sets for use in graduate-level studies

A comprehensive survey of techniques and applications in image and video processing and analysis

A widely varied selection of experts provides extensive coverage of nonlinear model-based techniques in image and video processing and analysis. This volume not only details new techniques in still image and digital video but also discusses applications in computer vision, multimedia, and visual information retrieval systems. All nonlinear, model-based techniques are detailed, and a complete and up-to-date accounting of the most important and effective algorithms is included for every application and technique discussed.

The applications described also include such real-world uses as multimedia information retrieval, automatic surveillance, lip tracking, and much more. Analytical techniques such as Boolean and stack filters, rational functions, mathematical morphology techniques, and adaptive order statistic filtering receive detailed treatment as they apply to specific uses such as image compression, segmentation, old motion picture restoration, image/video interpolation, and noise smoothing.

Chapters include:

• Optimal Design of Boolean and Stack Filters and Their Application in Image Processing
• Image Processing Using Rational Functions
• Mathematical Morphology and Motion Picture Restoration
• Adaptive Order Statistic Filtering of Still Images and Image Sequences
• Video Segmentation Based on Multiple Features for Interactive and Automatic Multimedia Applications
• Invariant Features in Pattern Recognition–Fundamentals and Applications
• Image Models for Facial Feature Tracking

Students, engineers, and scientists will appreciate both the wide range of expert opinion in this comprehensive volume and the detailed coverage of the algorithms and mathematical models used in state-of-the-art image and video processing.

In the current age of information technology, the issues of distributing and utilizing images efficiently and effectively are of substantial concern. Solutions to many of the problems arising from these issues are provided by techniques of image processing, among which segmentation and compression are topics of this book. Image segmentation is a process for dividing an image into its constituent parts. For block-based segmentation using statistical classification, an image is divided into blocks and a feature vector is formed for each block by grouping statistics of its pixel intensities. Conventional block-based segmentation algorithms classify each block separately, assuming independence of feature vectors. Image Segmentation and Compression Using Hidden Markov Models presents a new algorithm that models the statistical dependence among image blocks by two dimensional hidden Markov models (HMMs). Formulas for estimating the model according to the maximum likelihood criterion are derived from the EM algorithm. To segment an image, optimal classes are searched jointly for all the blocks by the maximum a posteriori (MAP) rule. The 2-D HMM is extended to multiresolution so that more context information is exploited in classification and fast progressive segmentation schemes can be formed naturally. The second issue addressed in the book is the design of joint compression and classification systems using the 2-D HMM and vector quantization. A classifier designed with the side goal of good compression often outperforms one aimed solely at classification because overfitting to training data is suppressed by vector quantization. Image Segmentation and Compression Using Hidden Markov Models is an essential reference source for researchers and engineers working in statistical signal processing or image processing, especially those who are interested in hidden Markov models. It is also of value to those working on statistical modeling.

A timely and authoritative guide to the state of the art of wave scattering

Scattering of Electromagnetic Waves offers in three volumes a complete and up-to-date treatment of wave scattering by random discrete scatterers and rough surfaces. Written by leading scientists who have made important contributions to wave scattering over three decades, this new work explains the principles, methods, and applications of this rapidly expanding, interdisciplinary field. It covers both introductory and advanced material and provides students and researchers in remote sensing as well as imaging, optics, and electromagnetic theory with a one-stop reference to a wealth of current research results. Plus, Scattering of Electromagnetic Waves contains detailed discussions of both analytical and numerical methods, including cutting-edge techniques for the recovery of earth/land parametric information.

The three volumes are entitled respectively Theories and Applications, Numerical Simulation, and Advanced Topics. In the first volume, Theories and Applications, Leung Tsang (University of Washington) Jin Au Kong (MIT), and Kung-Hau Ding (Air Force Research Lab) cover:

• Basic theory of electromagnetic scattering
• Fundamentals of random scattering
• Characteristics of discrete scatterers and rough surfaces
• Scattering and emission by layered media
• Single scattering and applications
• Radiative transfer theory and solution techniques
• One-dimensional random rough surface scattering