Image Degredation

Encord Computer Vision Glossary

Image degredation

Image degradation is the process by which an image's quality is diminished or compromised. This can happen for a number of causes, including noise, blur, or compression, and can negatively affect the image's appearance and readability.

Noise can be introduced into an image in a number of ways, including electronic noise in the camera sensor, interference from outside sources, or quantization mistakes during image processing. Noise is one of the most frequent causes of image degradation. Noise can affect an image's clarity and detail by causing random variations in the intensity or color of the pixels.

Blur can also cause image degradation, as it can make the image appear out of focus or reduce the sharpness and detail of the image. Blur can be caused by a variety of factors, such as the movement of the camera or the subject, the use of a low-quality lens, or the presence of atmospheric effects such as haze or smoke.

Compression can also lead to image degradation, as it involves reducing the size of the image by removing or approximating certain image data. This can result in lossy compression, where some of the original data is permanently lost, or lossless compression, where the original data can be recovered exactly. While compression can be useful for reducing the storage and transmission requirements of images, it can also result in a loss of quality, depending on the amount of compression applied.

Image restoration methods like denoising, deblurring, or decompression may be required to address image degradation in an effort to improve the image's quality. These methods can be used to enhance the image's visibility and readability, but they also run the risk of adding more artifacts or distortions, which could degrade the quality of the restored image.

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What problems does image degradation cause in computer vision models?

Noise can be introduced into an image in a number of ways, including electronic noise in the camera sensor, interference from outside sources, or quantization mistakes during image processing. Noise is one of the most frequent causes of image degradation. Noise can affect an image's clarity and detail by causing random variations in the intensity or color of the pixels.

Blur can also cause image degradation, as it can make the image appear out of focus or reduce the sharpness and detail of the image. Blur can be caused by a variety of factors, such as the movement of the camera or the subject, the use of a low-quality lens, or the presence of atmospheric effects such as haze or smoke.

Compression can also lead to image degradation, as it involves reducing the size of the image by removing or approximating certain image data. This can result in lossy compression, where some of the original data is permanently lost, or lossless compression, where the original data can be recovered exactly. While compression can be useful for reducing the storage and transmission requirements of images, it can also result in a loss of quality, depending on the amount of compression applied.

Image restoration methods like denoising, deblurring, or decompression may be required to address image degradation in an effort to improve the image's quality. These methods can be used to enhance the image's visibility and readability, but they also run the risk of adding more artifacts or distortions, which could degrade the quality of the restored image.

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