The influence and impact of digital images on modern society, science, technology and art are tremendous. Image processing has become such a critical component in contemporary science and technology that many tasks would not be attempted without it. It is a truly interdisciplinary subject that draws from synergistic developments involving many disciplines and is used in medical imaging, microscopy, astronomy, computer vision, geology and many other fields.

The rapid and continuing progress in computerized medical image reconstruction, and the associated developments in analysis methods and computer-aided diagnosis, have propelled medical imaging into one of the most important sub-fields in scientific imaging. This book takes its motivation from medical applications and uses real medical images and situations to clarify and consolidate concepts and to build intuition, insight and understanding. An overview of the fundamentals of the most important clinical imaging modalities in use is included to provide a context, and to illustrate how the images are produced and acquired.

This is a text for use in a first practical course in image processing and analysis, for final-year undergraduate or first-year graduate students with a background in biomedical engineering, computer science, radiologic sciences or physics. Designed for readers who will become “end users” of digital image processing in the biomedical sciences, it emphasizes the conceptual framework and the effective use of image processing tools and uses mathematics as a tool, minimizing the advanced mathematical development of other textbooks.

Discussions of the major medical imaging modalities enable students to understand the diagnostic tasks for which images are needed and the typical distortions and artifacts associated with each modality. This knowledge then motivates the presentation of the techniques needed to reverse distortions, minimize artifacts and enhance important features. Students understand why they are undertaking particular operations, and the practical activities enable them to see in real time how operations affect real images. Image processing is a hands-on discipline, and the best way to learn is by doing. Theory and practice are linked, each reinforcing the other.