Encyclopedia of Computer Science and Technology

information design 239Further ReadingCullen, Terry. The Wall Street Journal Complete Identity Theft Guidebook:How to Protect Yourself from the Most Pervasive Crime inAmerica. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2007.“How Many Identity Theft Victims Are There? What Is the Impacton Victims?” Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. Available online.URL: http://www.privacyrights.org/ar/idtheftsurveys.htm.Accessed September 23, 2007.Identity Theft Resource Center. Available online. URL: http://www.idtheftcenter.org/. Accessed September 23, 2007.“Identity Theft Tops FTC Complaints for 2006.” Consumeraffairs.com, February 8, 2007. Available online. URL: http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2007/02/ftc_top_10.html.Accessed September 23, 2007.Internet Crime Complaint Center. Available online. URL: http://www.ic3.gov/. Accessed September 23, 2007.Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. Available online. URL: http://www.privacyrights.org/. Accessed September 23, 2007.image processingImage processing is a general term for the manipulationof a digitized image to produce an enhanced or more convenientversion. Some of the earliest applications were inthe military (aerial and, later, satellite reconnaissance) andin the space program. The military and space programshad a great need for extracting as much useful informationas possible from images that were often gathered underextreme or marginal conditions. They also needed to makecameras and other hardware components simultaneouslymore compact and more efficient, and generally had thefunds to pay for such specialized developments.Once developed, higher-quality image processing systemsfound their way into other applications such as domesticsurveillance and medical imaging. The development ofcameras that could directly turn light into digitized images(see photography, digital) made image processing seamlessby avoiding the necessity of scanning images from traditionalfilm.Image processing applications can be divided intothree general categories: enhancement, interpretation, andmaintenance.EnchancementEnhancement includes bringing out objects of interest (suchas enemy vehicles or a particular rock formation on Mars)from the surrounding background by enhancing contrastor applying appropriate filters to block out the background.More sophisticated filters can also be used to compensatefor defects in the original image, such as “red-eye,” blur,and loss of focus. Today’s image processing programs, suchas the popular Adobe Photoshop, make relatively sophisticatedimage manipulation techniques available to interestedamateurs as well as professionals. More sophisticated imageenhancement techniques include the creation of 3D imagesbased upon the differences calculated from a number ofphotos shot from slightly different angles.A considerable amount of image enhancement takesplace even before the photo is taken. Today’s versatile cameras(see photography, digital) include a variety of modesthat are preset for different scenarios such as indoor portraitor low light. After the picture is taken, photo managementprograms (often bundled with the camera or even includedin the operating system) not only help organize photos, butalso provide simple ways to crop or enhance them.InterpretationInterpretation refers to manipulation designed to helphuman observers obtain more and better informationfrom the image. For example, “false color” can be used toheighten otherwise imperceptible color differences in theoriginal image, or to translate nonvisual information (suchas heat or radio emission levels) into visual terms.Artificial intelligence algorithms can also be employedto automatically analyze images for features of interest (seepattern recognition and computer vision). In fieldssuch as military reconnaissance this might allow a highvolume of imagery to be prescreened, with images meetingcertain criteria “flagged” for the attention of humaninterpreters.MaintenanceMaintenance includes archiving of images, often with theaid of compression to reduce the amount of storage spacerequired (see data compression). It can also include therestoration of images that may have been degraded (as fromchemical decomposition of stored film.) This can be doneeither by creating a reversible mathematical model of thedegradation process (thus, for example, restoring colorsthat have changed through oxidation or other processes)or by creating a model of how the image was formed in thefirst place and comparing its output to the existing image.Further ReadingGIMP, the GNU Image Manipulation Program. Available online.URL: http://www.gimp.org/. Accessed August 8, 2007.Gonzalez, Rafael, and Richard E. Woods. Digital Image Processing.3rd ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2007.Hanbury, Allan. “A Short Introduction to Digital Image Processing.”Available online. URL: http://www.prip.tuwien.ac.at/~hanbury/intro_ip/. Accessed August 8, 2007.MathWorks Image Processing. Available online. URL: http://www.mathworks.com/applications/imageprocessing/. AccessedAugust 8, 2007.Seul, Michael, Lawrence O’Gorman, and Michael J. Sammon.Image Analysis: Description, Examples, and Code. New York:Cambridge University Press, 2000.Ward, Al. PhotoShop for Right-Brainers: Photo Manipulation. Alameda,Calif.: SYBEX, 2004.information designInformation design is concerned with arranging and presentinginformation in ways that enable viewers to use itefficiently and with the greatest benefit. This discipline canbe said to have begun in the 19th century with the developmentof diagrams and maps that present the relationshipbetween two or more variables. These included John Snow’smap of London showing the locations of cholera outbreaksin the 1850s, and a striking 1861 diagram by Joseph Minardthat related the geographical progress of Napoléon’s 1812