Image information content is known to be a complicated and a controversial problem. We posit a new image information content definition. Following the theory of Solomonoff-Kolmogorov-Chaitin's complexity, we define image information content as a set of descriptions of image data structures. Three levels of such description can be generally distinguished: (1) the global level, where the coarse structure of the entire scene is initially outlined; (2) the intermediate level, where structures of separate, nonoverlapping image regions usually associated with individual scene objects are delineated; and (3) the low-level description, where local image structures observed in a limited and restricted field of view are resolved. A technique for creating such image information content descriptors is developed. Its algorithm is presented and elucidated with some examples, which demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
Inspired by the analogy between computer-based visual systems and their biological counterparts, we propose to introduce two new concepts: the concept of a pixel’s receptive field (analogous to neural cells’ receptive fields in the eye’s retina), and its derivation - the concept of information content of a single pixel (analogous to the output activity of the retina’s neural cells). Exploiting these new concepts, we suggest a quantitative measure for the dissimilarity between a pixel and its surrounding neighbors, which we define as a measure of pixel’s information content. With such a measure at the hand, many image processing tasks that usually require (for their successful accomplishment) some information related assumptions could be reformulated and redesigned to gain new and unknown computation efficiency of image features detection, description and discrimination.
On this basis, new image processing techniques could be devised.
Lena images processed by applying some of these techniques are presented for illustration purposes.
Access to the requested content is limited to institutions that have purchased or subscribe to SPIE eBooks.
You are receiving this notice because your organization may not have SPIE eBooks access.*
*Shibboleth/Open Athens users─please
sign in
to access your institution's subscriptions.
To obtain this item, you may purchase the complete book in print or electronic format on
SPIE.org.
INSTITUTIONAL Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.
PERSONAL Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.