Digital image processing is a rapidly evolving field with growing applications in science and engineering, such as high- definition television (HDTV). Many of the theories and concepts pertinent to image processing are within the scope of understanding by undergraduate students who learn them in prior courses. The introduction of image processing to the undergraduate curriculum facilitates the understanding of many important, yet abstract, techniques students acquire in signal processing, communication theory, and random variables courses. Moreover, this provides them with an excellent preparation for advanced study in related fields. Experiments based on image processing are an integral part of the course and the establishment of an image processing laboratory enables students to carry out experiments that supplement lecture materials. These experiments cover a wide range of practical applications that extend from the acquisition of an image to the edge detection of a noisy image. The conduct of these experiments necessitates a high-speed computer equipped with a frame grabber, a video camera and a high-resolution monitor. For educational purposes, an image-processing laboratory manual and an integrated software package capable of implementing all proposed experiments are planned.
