The Image Identification and Restoration Problem

Abstract

Images are produced in order to record or display useful information. Due to imperfections in the electronic or photographic medium, however, the recorded image often represents a degraded version of the original scene (Figure 1.1). The degradations may have many causes, but two types of degradations are often dominant: blurring and noise. Blurring is a form of bandwidth reduction of the image due to the imperfect image formation process. It can be caused by relative motion between the camera and the original scene, or by an optical system which is out of focus. When aerial photographs are produced for remote sensing purposes, blurs are introduced by atmospheric turbulence, aberrations in the optical system, and relative motion between the camera and the ground. Such blurring is not confined to optical images, for example electron micrographs are corrupted by spherical aberrations of the electron lenses and CT scans suffer from X-ray scatter.