Color image processing

1. Background and motivation The perception of color is of paramount importance in applications areas such as multimedia, computer vision, graphics, biomedical signal processing, and industrial inspection. Humans routinely use color features to sense the environment, identify and recognize objects of interest, and convey information. Color image processing and analysis deal with the manipulation of digital color images through the utilization of signal processing techniques. Like most advanced signal processing techniques, color image processing was, until the last decade, confined to academic institutions and research laboratories that could afford the expensive image processing hardware needed to handle the processing overhead required to process large volumes of visual data. However, with the advent of powerful computing devices , and the proliferation of consumer electronics such as digital cameras, smart phones, color scanners and printers, color image processing techniques are now within the grasp of the general public. Image processing practitioners and end-users routinely use color image processing solutions in applications such as transmission of consumer images and videos in wireless networks, indexing and archiving of personal photo collections, web-based processing of color images and videos, virtual restoration of artworks, mul-timedia information mining, and color management for peripheral devices such as printers and scanners. It is also not surprising that more versatile visual sensors and more efficient image processors replace their predecessors in various consumer electronic and computing devices to allow better understanding and reproduction of the visual scene and higher processing rates. Thus, new solutions are permanently needed to enhance performance of today's digital imaging systems, to enable real-time processing and analysis of high-resolution color visual data, and to solve challenging problems in emerging applications of color image processing. This special issue provides an overview of color image processing solutions for computer vision and visual data analysis applications. It is aimed at researchers and practitioners who work in the area of color image processing. Its purpose is to fill an existing gap in the scientific literature by presenting the state of the art research in the area. By its nature, a special issue cannot cover all important developments in such a dynamic and fast expanding area. However, it can provide a good starting point for researchers and practicing engineers willing to address the technical challenges and take advantage of the opportunities in the area of color image processing and analysis. 2. Quick facts about the special issue The guest editors suggested …