Basic Information

  • Course Code: CS 663
  • Course Name: Fundamentals of Digital Image Processing
  • Course Offered In: 2023-‘24
  • Semester Season: Autumn
  • Instructors: Ajit Rajwade
  • Prerequisites: No hard prerequisites, but a course in probability and signals( knowledge of Fourier Transform) would be helpful.
  • Difficulty (1 being easy and 5 being tough): 4

Course Content

One can go through the course website of my year, 2023 : https://www.cse.iitb.ac.in/~ajitvr/CS663_Fall2023/ which contains the slides along with the description of topics.

The main topics involve concepts and algorithms for:

  1. Image Alignment : transformed MSSD, Normalized cross-correlation, joint entropy

  2. Image filtering and enhancement methods: Blurring, sharpening, edge detection, contrast enhancement; Histogram Equalization

  3. Image Segmentation : Edge detection, Hough Transforms

  4. Fourier Transforms : 1D and 2D DFT, FFT; Discrete Convolution Frequency domain filters : LPF, HPF, Butterworth, Gaussian Filters

  5. Face Recognition : Using PCA and SVD

  6. Image Restoration : Wiener filter

  7. Image Compression techniques: DCT basis, Huffman encoding, JPEG and MGEP

  8. Color Image Processing: Different color models like RGB, CMY(K), HSI, YCbCr, Human vision, Hyperspectral Images

Feedback on Lectures

The professor is very enthusiastic and eager about the student’s learning. He encourages the students to ask as many questions as possible during the lectures. There were no tutorial session but the prof held office hours where he clarified the doubts of students regarding the assignments and the course content. The prof teaches using slides which are very elaborate and hence there is not much need for making notes. The course is a bit heavy on the mathematical side as the prof goes into the mathematical details of the algorithms taught. The prof works out the mathematics on board while explaining for better understanding. The prof gives multiple examples of the image processing technique or model through the results of research papers for the better understanding of the effect of these techniques. Going to the lectures is highly recommended as the interaction with the prof is great and also takes away a lot of effort during the preparation for the exams.

Feedback on Evaluations

Assignments: 40%, Project: 15%, Midsem: 20%, Endsem: 25%

The assignment and project have to be done in a Group of 3. The Assignments are the main focus where the instructor wants to test the students. The assignments are lengthy and have both a theoretical and programming component. The slides are enough to be able to complete the questions and the programming questions are mainly the MATLAB implementation of the algorithms taught in class. The Project mostly involved implementing some advanced algorithms from research papers that build on the concepts introduced in the course. Although time consuming, the assignments and project is a part of the evaluation which is most scoring. The Midsem and Endsem are relatively easy as long as one has gone through the entire slides (which is difficult if one starts a day prior to the endsem). Most questions are inspired and sometimes directly taken from assignments from previous years. The questions are applications oriented with some open-ended questions as well.

Study Material and Resources

With respect to the exams and assignments the classroom slides are exhaustive and the most important study material for the course, which the prof puts up on the course Website. The course website of my year : https://www.cse.iitb.ac.in/~ajitvr/CS663_Fall2023/

For deeper and better understanding the recommended book to follow is ““Digital Image Processing”” by Rafael C. Gonzalez and Richard Woods, 3rd edition. Other reference: Fundamentals of Digital Image Processing, by Anil K. Jain

Follow-up Courses

CS754 : Advanced Image Processing CS763 : Computer Vision

Final Takeaway

The course is well administered and covers the basics of Image processing well. Being a CS course , it also has a lot of mathematical detail. The evaluation scheme makes it possible to get a good grade if one puts in the effort to complete the assignments. Interesting and useful course which allows a student to take further courses in the field of image processing.