image processing

Technique for cleaning up and digitally retouching photographs.

A lot of the fundamental work involved in developing image processing techniques was done at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, USA, which manages unmanned space flight for NASA. Pictures taken in-flight of planets have drop-out areas where data is missing due to static or other interference. These pictures are also often taken using parts of the spectrum which the human eye cannot see. Accordingly, computer algorithms had to be developed to fill in the missing data and compute the correct colours. The images produced in this way are made available publicly and often appear in the media.