Newsgroups: sci.image.processing
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From: jbm@eos.arc.nasa.gov (Jeffrey Mulligan)
Subject: Re: The term "pixel" and multispectral data
Message-ID: <1995Jan11.011327.27721@eos.arc.nasa.gov>
Keywords: pixel
Organization: NASA Ames Research Center
References: <alanf.789781646@bruce.cs.monash.edu.au>
Distribution: usa
Date: Wed, 11 Jan 1995 01:13:27 GMT
Lines: 22

alanf@cs.monash.edu.au (Alan Finlay) writes:

>It seems most consistent to use the term "pixel" to refer to the aggregate of
>all bands at a particular image location (e.g. (red, green, blue) at [x,y]).
>What then do we call the component of a pixel corresponding to a single band
>(e.g. the red value at [x,y])?  In particular I need to apply this terminology
>to name certain procedure parameters which will indicate the number of
>"bits per pixel" in some cases and "bits per ?" in other cases.

>Is there any conventional terminology?

I don't know about "conventional," but in my own work I use exactly
the terms you did above:  "component" to refer to a single element,
and "pixel" to refer to the aggregate.  For example, my software
for dealing with Fourier transforms expects images with complex
pixels, consisting of two floating point components.

-- 

	Jeff Mulligan (jbm@vision.arc.nasa.gov)
	NASA/Ames Research Ctr., MS 262-2, Moffett Field CA, 94035-1000
	(415) 604-3745
