The Image Processing Handbook , Sixth Edition, John C. Russ. CRC Press, Boca Raton FL, 2011, 972 pages. ISBN 1-4398-4045-0 (Hardcover)

The sixth edition of this popular text continues the tradition of a very readable, well-organized, and lavishly illustrated ~full-color! book. As a reference, the book presents comparisons of many of the most widely used, as well as the newest and most powerful, algorithms for image processing and measurement. As a textbook, it leads the reader in a very organized and straightforward way through the steps that are followed in a typical workflow. Unlike most books in the field, this one does not begin with page upon page of equations. Rather, the explanations of the algorithms and the illustrations of step-by-step processing rely on illustrations and clear descriptions, including the purposes for which each can and should be employed. This approach may not appeal to those approaching the subject from a background of mathematical equations or programming. The author has other texts from the same publisher that provide that, and the references to other texts and to original publications are there for those who want them. But even for someone with that background and purpose, this book should probably be a companion to one of the more math-centric texts because of the variety of examples and practical explanations that are provided. Many of the example images are from microscopy applications ~light, transmission electron, scanning electron, atomic force, and a variety of others! , covering both biological and materials examples. They are supplemented with other images including real-world photographs, astronomical images, medical images @particularly in the chapters on three-dimensional ~3D! volumetric imaging# , and more. The intent is to provide the reader with something familiar to his or her discipline, and also to demonstrate that the same methods are applicable to images at all scales from nanometers to light-years. A second difference between this text and the majority of books with “Image Processing” in the title is the inclusion of procedures for image measurement. Obtaining meaningful measurements of density, position ~both absolute and relative to other structures present! , size, and shape is the logical step after image processing has been performed to correct for limitations in image capture, and to enhance the visibility of the important details. Many different measures of each of these categories of data are possible ~for example, there are more than a dozen measurements of “size” illustrated, with comments about what they represent! Knowing what is possible to measure, as well as what may be meaningful to measure in practical circumstances, is important in many fields. Note that “possible” and “meaningful” are not always the same! The book includes chapters on stereological measurement and interpretation, as well as measurements of discrete objects, and information on the analysis of the resulting data. Examples are plentiful, as they are throughout the book. Many of the examples are extended throughout several chapters to show the workflow that is often necessary to reveal, extract, measure, and interpret the important structural features present in materials, biological tissue, and other fields such as textiles, wood products, food microstructure, surface metrology, and more. The inclusion of measurement procedures for this broad range of applications reflects the author’s decades of experience and also shows the universality of the methods. In each of the editions of this book, which first appeared in 1990 and has had new editions released about every four years, the references have been expanded and updated. The coverage of imaging hardware—cameras, printers, and storage—has also been kept up-to-date, important in this rapidly evolving field. And in each edition there have been additions of new material. For instance, the stereological measurement chapter and one on image database structures arrived with the 4th edition, and chapters on human vision and on feature recognition and classification appeared in the 5th edition. This 6th edition adds a chapter on the measurement of shape and an expanded section on imaging in more than two dimensions. Shape is an intriguingly complex topic. Approaches range from the cheap-and-cheerful use of formally dimensionless ratios ~e.g., aspect ratio length/ breadth! to Fourier descriptors of the object boundary, fractal dimension, topology, and more. These are also extended to deal with 3D, volumetric images. Printed in full color throughout, the book represents a welcome addition to any reference shelf. Experienced researchers as well as novices will turn to it often to learn about imaging, while for students it provides a gentle yet thorough introduction, appropriate at either the undergraduate or graduate level, to a set of techniques that are used in as many wide-ranging disciplines as microscopy itself. Highly recommended, the book is extremely readable and captures the style of an experienced, knowledgeable teacher.