Digital Forensics Flashcards
What is the job of the lens?
To focus light/image onto centre
What is the job of the filter?
Reduce the sensitivity to infrared light
What is the job of the sensor?
Turns light into a recordable image
What does the DSP unit do?
Performs some basic image processing before the image is saved
What is the focal point?
A point on the optic axis where parallel light rays converge
What is the optic axis?
A line which runs perpendicular to the lens and directly through the middle
What does CMOS stand for? And what is its use?
Complementary metal oxide semiconductor
It helps the light sensitive sensor chip to record all of the data in a very short space of time
What does DSLR stand for?
Digital single lens reflex
What are pixels?
Individual light sensitive cells which measure the amount of light that fall on them. They cover the cameras sensor
How are coloured images produced?
The light seen by the camera is split in to the three primary colours which can than be used to create an accurate image through the use of a Bayer filter
What is a Bayer filter?
A grid of coloured filters that sit over the sensor with red, green, and blue elements over individual pixels which will only allow their respective light colours through. It looks at pixels surrounding others to formulate an informed guess of what the true colour of that pixel is
What is the job of the colour filter array?
It allows the digital camera to ‘see’ colours as it is colourblind without this and can only determine light intensity
What are the two common configurations of the colour filter array? Can you describe them?
The Bayer pattern - checkered
The Stripe pattern - stripes
What are photo sites?
Each square on the sensor element is a single photo site
Why are there two times more green elements on the colour filter array compared to red and blue?
Due to the human eye being more sensitive to green light
What are the two main types of sensors in the camera?
CCD (charge coupled device) and CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor)
Define photodiodes
Semiconductor devices that generate an electrical charge in proportion to the number of photons which reach them
Where are photodiodes typically found?
They are tightly packed on a silicone wafer in CCDs and CMOSs
What are the advantages of CCD sensors?
- Proven record of technologies and commercialization
- Low noise, high S/N because the surface is almost entirely photosensitive (compared to 1/4 in CMOS)
What are the disadvantages of CCD sensors?
- High power consumption, slower speed
- on-chip peripheral circuits difficult to manufacture
What are the advantages of CMOS sensors?
- Manufacture can be simpler and less expensive
- Use less power than CCD
- Physical size of detector is smaller
What are the disadvantages of CMOS sensors?
- Relatively high noise
Where are CMOS sensors and CCD sensors typically used?
CMOS - modern consumer cameras (phones)
CCD - scientific applications
What is the job of the DSP (digital signal processors) molecule?
To read out the voltages from the image sensor which are then fed into an onboard image processing module which contains proprietary algorithms for improving the perceived quality, demosaicing, and compression
Define spacial sampling
The average light intensity per pixel
How many values per pixel to monochrome images have?
One
Why does the image appear blurry when the light intensity pattern is continuous?
Each pixel only record the average light intensity
Define resolution
The dimensions by which you can measure how many pixels are on a screen
Why are sharper images shown on a phone compared to a laptop?
They both have the same number of pixels, but they are in a denser space on the phone
What is a byte?
8 bits
How do we make an image darker?
By subtracting a fixed constant from each of the RGB values
Define point processing
The process of adjusting a pixels value according to a transformation function
What is an image histogram?
A graph which records the number of pixels in an image, and the light intensity of each of these pixels, and displays this as a bar chart
Why is a 4-bit image sometimes used instead of an 8-bit image?
It makes the image histogram clearer due to there being less values