Thoughts from the Engineer
July 21, 2007Our Take on Interpolation:
This is a digital process of reinventing a picture by
filling in the holes. When the picture is sampled and viewed
without enlargement all the pixels are laying side by side.
As we enlarge or increase the size, holes begin to develop
and there is a need to fill in that space with a color that
is a combination of the neighboring pixels. This can be
readily seen when you attempt to over enlarge a picture and
the little jagged edges and pixel squares start to become
apparent. To produce an image that is larger than what the
cameras sensor captured or digitally zoom that image you
must fill in the space with pixels that are the color of the
surrounding pixels. This produces a more blended effect but
not a sharper effect because this process cannot clean or
sharpen the picture better than the original image. There
are several methods of interpolation used in the camera
industry. Bicubic being the most
sophisticated followed by bilinear and the one discussed
above. Our trail cameras probably only use the first
discussed method where near pixels are sampled for color and
reintroduced next door. I have never been a fan of this type
of digital enhancement in our game cameras and feel that
anything over 3 MP is over kill. If the manufacturers used a
good quality CMOS sensor, the need for all of this digital
enhancement would go away. By taking an image from your
camera and then using one of the photo enhancement programs
on your computer, you are using some method of interpolation
in order to achieve the desired effect. I believe that it is
obvious that it is cheaper for the camera companies to
electronically interpolate rather than to provide quality
image sensors in the first place. Bill
A sample movie from the Wildview 4: (click thumbnail)
The movie is captured in a native resolution of 320x240. Use your player to increase its size and you will notice the pixellation. Interpolation in still photos is a process of smoothing these jagged edges as you increase the size of the phot beyond the native sensor resolution.
A sample movie from the Wildview 4: (click thumbnail)
The movie is captured in a native resolution of 320x240. Use your player to increase its size and you will notice the pixellation. Interpolation in still photos is a process of smoothing these jagged edges as you increase the size of the phot beyond the native sensor resolution.