This book, originally published December 1st, 1994, has been republished as an eBook October 21, 2022.

Real-time processing for digital imaging concerns efficient, deterministic implementation of algorithms whose inputs include digital images and whose outputs are digital images, numerical features, symbolic representations, or decisions. Practically, a real-time demand occurs when one is faced with composing an algorithm that must complete and imaging task within some given time frame. Computation bottlenecks appear in many forms and, to some extent, each requires its own real-time implementation via algorithm design, software, hardware, or a combination therof; nevertheless, there are certain fundamental algorithms at the center of digital image processing and our focus is upon the structure, computation, and application of these algorithms. Specifically, we treat linear, matrix, and nonlinear algorithms that appear across a wide range of imaging applications. Among the applications discussed are noise suppression, edge detection, matched filtering, and data compression. Specific operations covered include linear convolution, the discrete cosine transform (DCT), the fast Fourier transform (FFT), the median filter and the morphological gradient.