3D Video: From Capture to Diffusion

Chapter 2

Digital Cameras: Definitions and Principles

2.1. Introduction

Digital cameras are a common feature of most mobile phones. In this chapter, we will outline the fundamentals of digital cameras to help users understand the differences between image features formed by sensors and optics in order to control their governing parameters more accurately. We will examine a digital camera that captures not only still images but also video, given that most modern cameras are capable of capturing both types of image data.

This chapter provides a general overview of current camera components required in three-dimensional (3D) processing and labeling, which will be examined in the remainder of this book. We will study each stage of light transport via the camera’s optics, before light is captured as an image by the sensor and stored in a given format. Section 2.2 introduces the fundamentals of light transport as well as notations for wavelength and color spaces, commonly used in imaging. Section 2.3 examines how cameras have been adapted to capture and transform into digital image. This section also describes the details of different components in a camera and their influence on the final image. In particular, we will provide a brief overview of different optical components and sensors, examining their advantages and limitations. This section also explains how these limitations can be corrected by applying postprocessing algorithms to the acquired images. Section 2.4 investigates the ...