SEMESTER: Fall 2003

CREDIT HOURS: 3.0                  

This is a web-delivered course.
Regular classroom sessions will not be held.

IMPORTANT
Exams and occasional discussion sessions will be held at times and places to be arranged.  Remote students will have exams at the same time as the on-campus students, but administered by a proctor at an appropriate site.

REQUIRED TEXT: K. R. Castleman, "Digital Image Processing", Prentice Hall, 1996. ISBN 0-13-211467-4

USEFUL REFERENCES:
Bovik, Handbook of Image and Video Processing, Academic Press, 2000 (this book is on reserve at the NAU Cline Library)
Jain, Fundamentals of Digital Image Processing, Prentice Hall, 1989.
Marr, Vision, Freeman Press, 1982.
Gonzalez and Woods, Digital Image Processing, Addison Wesley, 1994.
Lim, Two-Dimensional Signal and Image Processing, Prentice Hall, 1990.

PREREQUISITES:

EE 442:

Completion of EE 222.  MATLAB programming skills are required for success in this course.

Successful completion of EE 348, Signals and Systems, or equivalent.

EE 542:

Proficiency in C, C++, or Java (CSE 122 or CSE 126).

Proficiency in MATLAB (EE 222).

EE 448, digital signal processing.

COURSE OBJECTIVE:
To introduce and explore a variety of techniques and algorithms for digital image processing, image analysis, and pattern recognition.

COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This course introduces a set of commonly-used methods for processing and analyzing gray-scale and color digital images. Where appropriate, the techniques are briefly compared to those encountered in biological vision. Programming assignments involve implementation of algorithms using MATLAB, allowing an exploration of their characteristics and effectiveness. EE 542 students will develop a semester project that requires the implementation of an extensive image processing problem in C, C++, or Java.

COURSE GRADING:
The course grade will be based upon two mid-term exams, homework, on-line quizzes, MATLAB programming assignments, a semester project (EE 542 only), participation, and a comprehensive final exam.

Final grades will be determined by the following percentages:
A = 90+, B = 80-89, C = 70-79, D = 60-69, F = below 60

At the instructor's discretion, grading thresholds may be relaxed somewhat to accommodate an unusual distribution of scores.

LATE WORK:

Assignments are not accepted late.  No makeup exams will be given except by prior arrangement in exceptional, unavoidable, emergency situations.  Please contact me immediately if such a situation arises.

ACADEMIC DISHONESTY:
Incidents of cheating or plagiarism are treated very seriously and will be handled according to the NAU policy on academic dishonesty in Appendix G of the Student Handbook.

NEED EXTRA HELP?
I want you to succeed in this course! I'm willing to help you in any reasonable way I can. If you're beginning to have difficulty, please contact me before the situation deteriorates.

STANDARD UNIVERSITY POLICIES also apply:
· Safe Environment
· Students with Disabilities
· Accommodation of Religious Observance and Practice
· Institutional Review Board (use of human subjects)
· Classroom Management
· Academic Integrity
· Evacuation

ACCESSING WebCT:
The NAU WebCT server is hosting this course.  You must have a dana account to access.

1. Point your browser to:   www.nau.edu/webct
2. Logon using your dana account and password.
3. After login, you should see a list of on-line courses in which you are enrolled.  EE442_542_Mlsna_(Image_Processing) is how this course will be listed.  (If it does not appear, please contact the instructor.)
4. You should now have access the the course materials.
5. When you’re done, be sure to properly logout from WebCT.  You’ll find the logout link on the “myWebCT” page just below the Bookmarks heading near the bottom of the page.

·  Your browser must be Java enabled.  Recent versions of Netscape and Internet Explorer should work fine.

·  Your browser must have a plug-in capable of playing RealAudio files.  RealPlayer 8 Basic is a free plug-in that can be found at:  www.real.com

·  A high-speed internet connection is not necessary.  All content, including the RealAudio files and images, should work on a 28.8 kbps dial-up connection.  Images and audio files can sometimes be large, so patience may be needed if you have a slow connection.

PROPOSED TOPICS (tentative and somewhat flexible):
1. Course overview, digital image basics
2. Histograms, contrast manipulation
3. Spatial filtering, convolution
4. Fourier transforms, frequency domain
5. Noise suppression
6. Edge enhancement and edge detection
7. Geometric processing, warping
8. Classification and clustering algorithms
9. Color images, color image processing
10. Segmentation, image compression
11. Texture, shape
12. Image databases, image retrieval