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Columbia University

Camera and Imaging

This course covers the fundamentals of imaging – the creation of an image that is ready for consumption or processing by a human or a machine. Imaging has a long history, spanning several centuries. But the advances made in the last three decades have revolutionized the camera and dramatically improved the robustness and accuracy of computer vision systems. We describe the fundamentals of imaging, as well as recent innovations in imaging that have had a profound impact on computer vision. This course starts with examining how an image is formed using a lens camera. We explore the optical characteristics of a camera such as its magnification, F-number, depth of field and field of view. Next, we describe how solid-state image sensors (CCD and CMOS) record images, and the key properties of an image sensor such as its resolution, noise characteristics and dynamic range. We describe how image sensors can be used to sense color as well as capture images with high dynamic range. In certain structured environments, an image can be thresholded to produce a binary image from which various geometric properties of objects can be computed and used for recognizing and locating objects. Finally, we present the fundamentals of image processing – the development of computational tools to process a captured image to make it cleaner (denoising, deblurring, etc.) and easier for computer vision systems to analyze (linear and non-linear image filtering methods).

Status: Computer Vision
Status: Computer Graphics
BeginnerCourse21 hours

Featured reviews

MK

5.0Reviewed Mar 5, 2023

Good course for learning fundamentals in image processing.

GS

5.0Reviewed Nov 1, 2021

G​ood introduction to camera and imaging topics - great first course for the First Principles of Computer Vision Specialization program.

TF

5.0Reviewed Dec 9, 2022

Excellent teaching. Concise and clear. Highly recommended.

QN

4.0Reviewed Dec 15, 2022

Lecture slides need to be supplied. The instructor should teach more clearer and with more understanding. This course is difficult to understand all things.

WK

5.0Reviewed Feb 11, 2023

The best course on Coursera in terms of clarity, pace, quality of materials.Thank you!

MG

5.0Reviewed Jul 26, 2024

The course was great and the explanations were to the point! I would definitely recommend to anyone starting with cameras and vision!

SW

5.0Reviewed Jan 1, 2023

An awesome course that covers all the important image and processing fundamentals.

HS

5.0Reviewed May 27, 2022

This was a great introduction to image processing. I learned a lot that's applicable to my current job. I expect the follow on courses to improve that learning!

AK

5.0Reviewed Sep 23, 2024

Great course for starting to learn Computer Vision.

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