Image Sensors and Signal Processing for Digital Still Cameras Optical Science and Engineering
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Image Sensors and Signal Processing for Digital Still Cameras Optical Science and Engineering
Shrinking pixel sizes along with improvements in image sensors, optics, and electronics have elevated DSCs to levels of performance that match, and have the potential to surpass, that of silver-halide film cameras. Image Sensors and Signal Processing for Digital Still Cameras captures the current state of DSC image acquisition and signal processing technology and takes an all-inclusive look at the field, from the history of DSCs to future possibilities. The first chapter outlines the evolution of DSCs, their basic structure, and their major application classes. The next few chapters discuss high-quality optics that meet the requirements of better image sensors, the basic functions and performance parameters of image sensors, and detailed discussions of both CCD and CMOS image sensors. The book then discusses how color theory affects the uses of DSCs, presents basic image processing and camera control algorithms and examples of advanced image processing algorithms, explores the architecture and required performance of signal processing engines, and explains how to evaluate image quality for each component described. The book closes with a look at future technologies and the challenges that must be overcome to realize them. With contributions from many active DSC experts, Image Sensors and Image Processing for Digital Still Cameras offers unparalleled real-world coverage and opens wide the door for future innovation.
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars Higly recommended for professionals
This is an excellent book. It covers a wide range of topics in a very detailed manner, suitable for university level students and professionals.
So far I have found only one error in the book. There is something terribly wrong in paragraph 2.2.2, page 32. It is stated that “Depth of the field - … - is proportional to the square of the focal length of the imaging optics.” In fact, the depth of field is inversely proportional to the focal length. Then Eq. 2.11 on page 33 is described once as giving a hyperfocal distance (above the equation) and below the equation is described as giving the depth of the field. I think this part seems to be missing some lines.
Overall, I highly recommend this book if you are looking for something at a technically advanced level.
5 Stars Great book on electronics of digital still cameras
This book focuses on image acquisition and signal processing in digital still cameras (DSC’s). From the perspective of the flow of image information, a DSC consists of imaging optics, an image sensor, and a signal processing block that receives a signal from the image sensor and generates digital data that is eventually compressed andstored on a memory device in the DSC.
Chapters one and two are at a rather high level and introductory. However, in chapter 3 the book gets much more specific. Chapter 3 discusses the functions and performance parameters common to CCD and CMOS image sensors. Chapter 4 describes in detail the CCD image sensors widely used in imaging applications. The chapter ranges from a discussion of basic CCD operating principles to descriptions of CCDimage sensors specifically designed for DSC applications. Chapter 5 discusses CMOS image sensor technology. Chapter 6, the final chapter focusing on sensors, describes methods for evaluating image sensor performances relative to DSC requirements.
Chapter 7 shifts gears and begins the discussing of image processing algorithms. The discussion begins with color theory and its application to DSCs. Chapter 8 presents the algorithms utilized by DSC’s in both hardware and software. Basic image processing and camera control algorithms are shown along with some image processing examples. Chapter 9 discusses the performance parameters for DSCs and digital video cameras followed by descriptions of the architectures of signal processing engines. Examples of the analog front-end and the digital back-end designs are introduced. Chapter 10 shows how each component previously described affects image quality. The final chapter discusses future DSC image sensors and explores a new paradigm for image sensors.
The reader should have an electrical engineering background since there are quite a few circuit diagrams shown involving transistors, and it is hard to follow the discussion if you are not already aware of their theory of operation. It is a very good book for its target audience, but students with pure computer science backgrounds who are coming to this looking for just the mathematics or algorithms of image processing may found themselves lost in the discussions involving pn junctions, which are numerous.
5 Stars Excellent book for people new to the field
The optics chapter (2) is pretty lousy. The part for sensors are just excellent. I found it systematically reviewed I’ve been reading fragmently from here and there for the past few months. My life would have been much better if I got this book earlier!!
5 Stars A nice book to own for reference and research
I read many parts of this book and I think that
it was well written for a wide range of users from optics to image quality metrics.
I strongly recommend it to all graduate students/engineers in CMOS imaging.
I wish I got it during my grad studies….but it is never late to learn and enjoy!!! 
I give 10 stars to this book…Good luck and hope to see more like this.
Note: I hope to see the optics chapter be re-written and posted with corrections on the Web. I believe this should be done soon and mentioned in amazon.com. Thank you.
5 Stars One of the best technical book on Cameras and Sensors
I have reviewed quite a few books on cameras and image sensors. Being in the business, I have quite a large library of books related to this field. However, Nakamura nailed it all with this book. A very well written - almost in layman’s terms - that addresses all the technical components that make up a camera. If you are looking to understand the principles of a digital camera, this book is for you.
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