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Image Formation

  • Reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Biometrics

  • 70 Accesses

Synonyms

Image acquisition

Definition

Image formation is the process in which three-dimensional (3D) scene points are projected into two-dimensional (2D) image plane locations, both geometrically and optically. It involves two parts. The first part is the geometry (derived from camera models assumed in the imaging process) that determines where in the image plane the projection of a scene point will be located. The other part of image formation, related with radiometry, measures the brightness of a point in the image plane as a function of illumination and surface properties.

Introduction

Common visual images result from light intensity variations across a two-dimensional plane. However, light is not the only source used in imaging. To understand how vision might be modeled computationally and replicated on a computer, it is important to understand the image acquisition process. Also, understanding image formation is a prerequisite before one could solve some complex computer vision...

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References

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Automation Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, 4 Jianshe North Road 2nd Section, Chenghua, 610051, Chengdu, Sichuan, China

    Xiaoming Peng

  2. School of Computer Science and Software Engineering, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, Perth, WA, Australia

    Xiaoming Peng

Authors
  1. Xiaoming Peng
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Biometrics and Security, Research & National Laboratory of Pattern Recognition, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Stan Z. Li

  2. Departments of Computer Science and Engineering, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA

    Anil K. Jain

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Peng, X. (2015). Image Formation. In: Li, S.Z., Jain, A.K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Biometrics. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-7488-4_654

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