Abstract
Before any video or image processing can commence an image must be captured by a camera and converted into a manageable entity. This is the process known as image acquisition. The image acquisition process consists of three major components; energy reflected from the object of interest, an optical system which focuses the energy and finally a sensor which measures the amount of energy. In this chapter each of these three steps are described in more detail. The chapter provides insides into the nature of light and explains the need for an optical system to focus the incoming light onto a sensor. Camera characteristics such as resolution, field-of-view, zoom, and depth-of-fields are illustrated and discussed. Lastly, the digital image is introduced, where the relationship between incoming light and a pixel value is presented.
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Optical zoom should not be confused with digital zoom, which is done through software.
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© 2012 Springer-Verlag London Limited
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Moeslund, T.B. (2012). Image Acquisition. In: Introduction to Video and Image Processing. Undergraduate Topics in Computer Science. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-2503-7_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-2503-7_2
Publisher Name: Springer, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-4471-2502-0
Online ISBN: 978-1-4471-2503-7
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