History of Digital Image Processing

FIGURE 1.1 

A digital picture produced in 1921

 from a coded tape by a telegraph 

printer with special type faces. (McFarlane.† )

Early 1920s: One of the first applications of digital imaging was in the newspaper industry.

• The Bartlane cable picture transmission service.
• Reduced the time required to transport a picture across the Atlantic from more than a week to less than three hours.
• Specialized printing equipment coded pictures for cable transmission and then reconstructed them at the receiving end

========================================================================

FIGURE 1.2
A digital picture made in 1922 from a tape
punched after the signals had crossed the
Atlantic twice. Some errors are visible. (McFarlane.)
FIGURE 1.3
Unretouched cable picture of Generals Pershing
and Foch, transmitted in 1929 from London
 to New York by 15-tone equipment.

Mid to late 1920s: Improvements to the Bartlane system resulted in higher quality images

• New reproduction processes based on photographic techniques 
• Increased number of tones in reproduced images 

1922: The early Bartlane systems were capable of coding images in five distinct levels of gray.
1929: This capability was increased to 15 levels in 1929.

========================================================================

1940s: However, the basis for what we call a modern digital computer dates back to only the 1940s with the introduction by John von Neumann of two key concepts:

1. a memory to hold a stored program and data, and 
2. conditional branching. 

These two ideas are the foundation of a central processing unit (CPU), which is at the heart of computers today.

========================================================================

1948 : the invention of the transistor by Bell Laboratories in 1948;

1950s and 1960s:  the development in the 1950s and 1960s of the high-level programming languages COBOL (Common Business-Oriented Language) and FORTRAN (Formula Translator);

1958;  the invention of the integrated circuit (IC) at Texas Instruments in 1958;

early 1960s; the development of operating systems in the early 1960s;

early 1970s; the development of the microprocessor (a single chip consisting of the central processing unit, memory, and input and output controls) by Intel in the early 1970s;

late 1970s,: progressive miniaturization of components, starting with large scale integration (LI) in the late 1970s, 

1980s,: then very large scale integration (VLSI) in the 1980s, to the present use of ultra large scale integration (ULSI).

1981: introduction by IBM of the personal computer in 1981; and

========================================================================

The first picture of the moon by a U.S.
spacecraft. Ranger 7 took this image on
July 31, 1964 at 9 : 09 A.M.  EDT, about
17 minutes before impacting the
lunar surface.
(Courtesy of NASA.)

early 1960s: The first computers powerful enough to carry out meaningful image processing tasks appeared in the early 1960s.  and the onset of the space program during that period.



1964: Computers used to improve the quality of images of the moon taken by the Ranger 7 probe 

• Such techniques were used in other space missions including the Apollo landings 

========================================================================

Typical head slice CAT image 

the late 1960s and early 1970s:  Digital image processing begins to be used in medical applications


1979: Sir Godfrey N. Hounsfield & Prof. Allan M. Cormack share the Nobel Prize in medicine for the invention of tomography, the technology behind Computerised Axial Tomography (CAT/CT) scans.

A computerized axial tomography scan is an x-ray procedure that combines many x-ray images with the aid of a computer to generate crosssectional views and, if needed, three-dimensional images of the internal organs and structures of the body.

========================================================================

1980s - Today: The use of digital image processing techniques has exploded and they are now used for all kinds of tasks in all kinds of areas

• Image enhancement/restoration 
• Artistic effects 
• Medical visualisation 
• Industrial inspection 
• Law enforcement 
• Human computer interfaces