VIZA 654 / CSCE 646 : Digital Image
Fall 2020

Syllabus

VIZA 654 / CSCE 646, Digital Image
VIZA 654 / CSCE 646, Digital Image
Course Information
Catalog Data: Viza 654, Digital Image (3-2). Credit 4.

Instructor: Ergun Akleman, Ph.D.

Hours: MW 08:00am - 10:05am

Office: Langford A, Room 105

Classroom: Architecture C 414

Phone Number: (979) 845-6599

E-mail: ergun dot akleman at gmail dot com

Office Hours: Open Door Policy

Description: Tools and techniques for the generation, handling and analysis of two-dimensional digital images. Image representation and storage, display, media conversion, painting and drawing, warping, color space operations, enhancement, filtering, and manipulation. Just as digital sound has become the standard for high-quality audio recording, the digital image is becoming the standard form of electronic image. Digital images have the advantages of lossless storage, transmission, and retrieval. Their form greatly facilitates generation, manipulation, and display within a computing environment, and they provide a natural syntax for image representation that pervades the world of computer graphics and visualization. Thus, an understanding of the nature, form, and technology of the digital image is essential to a visualization practitioner.

Prerequisites: MS/PhD Status or Consent of the instructor.

Goals: This course will provide a thorough grounding in the state of the art in the treatment of digital images, particularly within the context of computer graphics, and digital effects. It is designed to prepare students to

  • understand existing systems for storage, display, transformation and manipulation of digital images
  • write their own software for working with digital images
  • undertake creative work and research involving digital images
Students read, discuss, and are tested on hand-out material, and complete a series of exercises on the computer. Many of the exercises will involve programming and making use of graphics libraries. Work may be done on any computer supporting C++, OpenGL and the OpenGL interface API GLUT (OpenGL Utility Toolkit), and will involve a brief study of professional image manipulation software.

Learning Outcomes: Upon completion of this course, students will know the state of the art in the treatment of digital images in the context of computer graphics, and digital effects. They will understand existing systems for storage, display, transformation and manipulation of digital images, they will be able to write their own software for working with digital images and they will be able to undertake creative work and research involving digital images

Attendance: Watching Lecture Videos is required.

Course Outline
The course will cover mathematical, computational and artistic foundations of digital image. The course topics include the following:
  1. The Fundamental Nature of Digital Images
    • sampling
    • point spread
    • reconstruction
  2. Digital Representation and Display of Images
    • bitmaps and pixmaps
    • framebuffer hardware
    • CRT displays
    • color and color spaces
    • color lookup tables
    • gamma correction
    • color manipulation techniques
  3. Archival Storage of Images
    • image file formats
    • conversion between formats
    • compression schemes
  4. Compositing
    • alpha channel and opacity
    • image combination operations
    • bluescreening
  5. Filtering Algorithms
    • convolution filters
    • morphological operators
    • Image Warping
    • general image maps
    • forward warp
    • inverse warp
    • affine warps
    • projective warps
    • bilinear warp
  6. Sampling, Filtering and Reconstruction
    • sampling and the aliasing problem
    • spatial convolution filtering techniques
    • resampling and the reconstruction problem
    • reconstruction techniques
  7. General Warping and Morphing Algorithms
    • scanline warp algorithm
    • morphing as warp + compositing
    • feature based morphing algorithms
  8. High Dynamic Range Imaging
    • acquisition
    • tone mapping
    • applications
  9. Advanced Topics (time permitting)
    • lossy image compression (JPEG and wavelet)
    • NPR image methods
Course Materials and Testing:

Textbook: As a textbook, we will use The Digital Image, by Donald House.

Course Materials & Quizzes:: Additional course materials and quizzes will be available in Webassign: https://www.webassign.net/. Students are responsible for enrollment to Webassign. For enrollment instructions, either go to https://www.webassign.net/user_support/faculty/ or read student quick start guide and download Self-Enrollment Class Handout. The class key for enrollment is tamu 0940 3391. To access to WebAssign, each student pays a basic content subscription fee: $22.95/student per course. (See https://www.webassign.net/pricing/ for fee information).

Additional Resources: Siggraph Proceedings and Coursenotes; Computer Graphics Journals and Proceedings; and Computer Graphics Books. See References from top link for more detailed information.

Grading Policy

Quizzes: 54 points
Projects: 36 points
Watching Lecture Videos: 10 points

The highest possible grade is 100.

  • A Grade >90 points
  • B 90 points > Grade >80 points
  • C 80 points > Grade >70 points
  • D 70 points >Grade >60 points
  • F 60 points > Grade

Quizzes:
We will have weekly quizzes, which are not necessarily be equally weighted. Quizzes will be given and graded using Webassign. Make sure to pay attention to due dates and times. If you miss the deadline, your quiz will be graded over %50 of actual grade.

Projects:
Students will be responsible to complete 12 programming projects. The project descriptions are available in class project website. Each project will be graded by 3 points. The grading of each project will be based on both quality and process. Quality mesaures are provided in associated project pages. If you miss the grading deadline, your project will be graded over %50 of actual grade. The total grade one can get from projects (without bonuses) is 36 points.

Watching Videos:
Wathing Videos will be evaluated by weekly quizzes on some information on videos. If you miss the deadline, your "watching video" will be graded over %50 of actual grade.

Bonuses:
Students who attend live video recording sections, ask questions and provide inputs by participating recording discussions will get bonus points up to five point. This requires a strong presence, which will be evaluated both quantitatively (not missing any recording with no excuse) and qualitatively (being active during session by asking questions and providing inputs). Projects also have bonuses. With bonuses you can get well above 36 points in projects.

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Policy Statement
The following ADA Policy Statement (part of the Policy on Individual Disabling Conditions) was submitted to the University Curriculum Committee by the Department of Student Life. The policy statement was forwarded to the Faculty Senate for information.

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a federal anti-discrimination statute that provides comprehensive civil rights protection for persons with disabilities. Among other things, this legislation requires that all students with disabilities be guaranteed a learning environment that provides for reasonable accommodation of their disabilities. If you believe you have a disability requiring an accommodation, please contact the Department of Student Life, Services for Students with Disabilities, in Cain Hall or call 845-1637.

Academic Integrity Statements

Aggie Honor Code

An Aggie does not lie, cheat, or steal or tolerate those who do.

Upon accepting admission to Texas A&M University, a student immediately assumes a commitment to uphold the Honor Code, to accept responsibility for learning, and to follow the philosophy and rules of the Honor System. Students will be required to state their commitment on examinations, research papers, and other academic work. Ignorance of the rules does not exclude any member of the TAMU community from the requirements or the processes of the Honor System.

For additional information please visit: http://www.tamu.edu/aggiehonor/


Plagiarism
In this course, we want to encourage collaboration and the free interchange of ideas among students and in particular the discussion of homework assignments, approaches to solving them, etc. However, we do not allow plagiarism, which, as commonly defined, consists of passing off as one's own the ideas, words, writings, etc., which belong to another. In accordance with this definition, you are committing plagiarism if you copy the work of another person and turn it in as your own, even if you should have the permission of that person. Plagiarism is one of the worst academic sins, for the plagiarist destroys the trust among colleagues without which research cannot be safely communicated.
If you have any questions regarding plagiarism, please consult the latest issue of the Texas A&M University Student Rules, under the section on Scholastic Dishonesty.

College of Architecture's "Don't deface the property" statement
"It is unlawful for any person to damage or deface any of the buildings, statues, monuments, trees, shrubs, grasses, or flowers on the grounds of any state institutions of higher education (Texas Education Code Section 51.204)"
The words damage or deface refer specifically to any and all actions, whether direct or indirect, that either diminish the value or mar the appearance of the physical environment.
Acknowledgements
Thanks to Prof. Donald House, who developed this course originally and provided course materials and strong support to the instructor.