Advances in Imaging and Electron Physics, Volume 92

The two long contributions in this volume correspond exactly to two of the regular themes of this series, namely, image processing and device physics. In the opening chapter, P. Zamperoni surveys one of the broad areas of activity in digital image processing, image enhancement. This includes many different ways of improving images or rendering them more informative without explicit use of any knowledge we may have about the causes of any deficiencies in image quality. Enhancement is thus different from restoration: for the latter all possible use is made of any information available about the image-forming process; three-dimensional reconstruction, Wiener-like filtering, and attempts to solve the phase problem are typical examples of restoration. The range of techniques for enhancing images is wide, including the many linear convolutional filters, the nonlinear morphological operations, and median and rank-order filters; these and other approaches to enhancement are all described in full in P. Zamperoni’s review.

In the other survey, С. M. Krowne presents in great detail the special problems of electromagnetic wave propagation in such highly anisotropic media as chiral materials and anisotropic ferrites as well as other “as yet undiscovered materials which result in additional or induced anisotropy.” This is a very promising research area and it is important to have a good grounding in the physics of carrier transport in these unusual substances and of the laws governing the propagation of electromagnetic waves, since the applications are mainly in the very high frequency domain. In addition, С. M. Krowne provides guidance to the numerical methods that are being employed to study these properties.