OpenGL – Build high performance graphics

Implementing area filtering (sharpening/blurring/embossing) on an image using convolution

We will now see how to do area filtering, that is, 2D image convolution to implement effects like sharpening, blurring, and embossing. There are several ways to achieve image convolution in the spatial domain. The simplest approach is to use a loop that iterates through a given image window and computes the sum of products of the image intensities with the convolution kernel. The more efficient method, as far as the implementation is concerned, is separable convolution which breaks up the 2D convolution into two 1D convolutions. However, this approach requires an additional pass.

Getting ready

This recipe is built on top of the image loading recipe discussed ...