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Computational photography is a new and rapidly developing research field. It has evolved
from computer vision, image processing, computer graphics, and applied optics, and refers
broadly to computational imaging techniques that enhance or extend the capabilities of
digital photography. The output of these techniques is an image which cannot be produced
by today’s common imaging solutions and devices. Despite the recent establishment of
computational photography as a recognized research area, numerous commercial products
capitalizing on its principles have already appeared in diverse market applications due to the
gradual migration of computational algorithms from computers to image-enabled consumer
electronic devices and imaging software.
Image processing methods for computational photography are of paramount importance
in the research and development community specializing in computational imaging due
to the urgent needs and challenges of emerging digital camera applications. There exist
consumer digital cameras which use face detection to better focus and expose the image,
while others perform preliminary panorama stitching directly in the camera and use local
tone mapping to manage difficult lighting situations. There are also successful attempts
to use the information from a set of images, for instance, to reduce or eliminate image
blur, suppress noise, increase image resolution, and remove objects from or add them to a
captured image.
Thus it is not difficult to see that many imaging devices and applications already rely on
research advances in the field of computational photography. The commercial proliferation
of digital still and video cameras, image-enabled mobile phones and personal digital assistants,
surveillance and automotive apparatuses, machine vision systems, and computer
graphic systems has increased the demand for technical developments in the area. It is
expected that the growing interest in image processing methods for computational photography
and their use in emerging applications such as digital photography and art, visual
communication, online sharing in social networks, digital entertainment, surveillance, and
multimedia will continue. |
