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Image Processing is a subject of wide interest in STEM-related fields and its applications range from cell biology to astrophysics. Learning the concept and mathematics behind Image Processing is difficult and requires training not readily available to high school students. Various ready-made free tools (like ImageJ) are available, but younger students still find it difficult to understand what is really going on behind the scenes. Pre-built functions in languages like Octave provide a better approach, but the real image processing is still buried under layers of sophisticated functions.As such, we experimented with various Image Processing techniques in Microsoft Excel to make the process simple and understandable to younger students. The applications required to teach this (Excel, Google Sheets, etc.) are easily available to school students and many of the aspects can be taught with minimal to no programming.This method will help in three key areas needed in various fields of research:1.Developing skills in analyzing and manipulating Excel files with a deeper level of understanding.2.Converting mathematical equations and ideas into algorithms which can be implemented into Excel.3.Laying the groundwork for more advanced image processing techniques and applications in the future.We present some of our experiments and results in this area involving a high school student (first author) and an undergraduate student (second author). Image Processing techniques presented include binary operations (addition/subtraction), thresholding (converting gray images to binary), edge detection, image recognition, etc. Sample Excel/Google Sheets will be available for download from our website. |
