The Virtual Plane Concept in Image Processing

Although the storage and retrieval system for image data and the image data processing system itself should be considered as a whole in image processing systems, it is important to be able to write efficient image processing algorithms without having to worry about detailed data handling instructions, especially in handling a large volume of image data which cannot be accommodated in the main storage or even in the high speed auxiliary storage. Providing a method for accessing image data, no matter how advanced in its capability, not only relieves the programmer of the burden of handling image data in writing an efficient program but also provides a method for describing pure algorithms; allowing to standardize the description of image processing algorithms (although there may be some algorithms which depend upon data structures) or allowing improved transportability of the image processing program package. Regarding transportability, the need for interchange of image data will also be the natural consequence. Also the separation of processing from the handling of image data appears to encourage the standardization of image data.