Preface
I think it is useful to provide a little background as to why and how this book came into being. This will perhaps provide some insight into the way the material is structured, and why it is presented in the way that it is.
Background
Firstly, a little bit of history. I have an extensive background in image processing, particularly in the areas of image analysis, machine vision and robot vision, all strongly application-orientated areas. With over 25 years of applying image processing techniques to a wide range of problems, I have gained considerable experience in algorithm development. This is not only at the image processing application level but also at the image processing operation level. My approach to an application has usually been more pragmatic than theoretical – I have focussed on developing image processing algorithms that solved the problem at hand. Often this involved assembling sequences of existing image processing operations, but occasionally it required developing new algorithms and techniques to solve particular aspects of the problem. Through work on machine vision and robotics applications, I have become aware of some of the limitations of software-based solutions, particularly in terms of speed and algorithm efficiency.
This led naturally to considering FPGAs as an implementation platform for embedded imaging applications. Many image processing operations are inherently parallel and FPGAs provide programmable hardware, also inherently parallel. Therefore, ...
