Lenna的故事 -- 譯自www.lenna.org原文
本中文簡介由 Jeffrey Xuan 經原作者 Chuck Rosenberg 授權同意後翻譯. 於非商業情形下可經譯者同意後轉載.請報留作者與譯者資訊.
當影像處理的專家們遇上Lenna小姐
這是真的！Lenna小姐參加了1997年5月在波士頓舉辦的 IS&T 第50屆研討會。這裡有一些相關的媒體報導：
花花公子雜誌(簡介) Playboy，Wired，花花公子雜誌(詳細追蹤報導) Playboy。
關於該討論會的報導可以看這裡。根據所有的報導，整個事件可說是非常壯觀，每個人都非常興奮，因為終於能夠和Lenna親自會面並索取她的照片。 她也有機會和一直使用她的照片從事研究的許多學者。
下圖是Lenna Soderberg (Sjooblom) 和Jeff Seideman在1997年五月IS&T 第50屆研討會的照片。Jeff Seideman 是該IS&T在波士頓研討會的主席，他安排了Lenna與會，他也是Image Tech Communications的主席，這是該國唯一針對影像處理科技的公關公司。右下圖是Lenna和James Owens博士（Eastman Kodak公司）觀賞使用她的影像的論文海報。
簡介
Lenna(或是Lena)這張圖像檔長久以來被廣泛地使用在影像壓縮成果測試上，研究影像壓縮理論的學者們都以此張圖檔作為樣張來比較他們研究成果的優異。 在網際網路新聞群組 comp.compression FAQ 中有提及：
供好奇的人參考：“lena”或“lenna”是一數碼圖像檔，來源是花花公子雜誌1972年11月號的一張折頁海報(Lenna是花花公子雜誌中的拼法，Lena則是瑞典原名的拼法)。 根據最近的消息，Lena Soderberg (ne Sjööblom)女士現在仍住在她的家鄉瑞典，擁有一個有三個孩子的家庭，並且在國家酒類專賣局工作。在1988年的時候， 她接受了瑞典一些電腦相關出版社的訪問，她對於她的照片有這樣的奇遇感到非常的驚奇與興奮。這是她首次得知她的照片被應用在電腦行業。
IEEE Professional Communication Society 的Newsletter 2001年五月裡有一篇由Jamie Hutchinson撰寫的文章，其中記載 有關此影像更多的細節。 以下摘錄其中一段：
Alexander Sawchuk估計應該是在1973年的六月或七月，當時他還是南加州大學電機系訊號及影像處理研究所（SIPI）的助理教授，他和一位研究生以及實驗室管理員想趕 快在實驗室裡找到一張影像，以提供同事發表論文之用。對於長期使用一般測試影像他們早就感到厭煩，這些東西都是1960年代早期的電視工作的標準。他們想找一份表面 光滑的照片以確保有好的輸出品質，而且還要是一張人臉。就在當時，有個人正好拿著當期花花公子雜誌走了進來。
這些工程師們把這張折頁的上方三分之一撕去，以方便捲入掃瞄機，掃瞄機附加了類比數位轉換器（具備紅、綠、藍三個頻道）和一部Hewlett Packard 2100迷你電腦。 他們要一張256´256大小的影像，而掃瞄機的規格是每英吋100條掃瞄線，因此他們掃瞄了這張照片上方5.12英吋寬的範圍，也就是到達Lenna的肩部左右。
原始影像在USC SIPI Images Database仍可取得，在 “miscellaneous”項目裡。
多年來曾有一些爭議圍繞在這張圖檔的使用上。有些人主張應該禁用這張圖檔，主要是因為它的來源。花花公子雜誌也曾威脅要對這張圖檔的未授權使用提出告訴。 請參照SPIE期刊主編所寫的社論Optical Engineering。以及前IEEE Transactions on Image Processing主編的一份筆記。根據Wired雜誌的說法，花花公子雜誌最後放 鬆了對這些影像侵權的控訴行動。
另一個有趣事情：Lenna當期雜誌（1972年11月）是花花公子雜誌有史以來最暢銷的一期，總共賣了7,161,561份。別忘了看看花花 公子雜誌中Lenna的生日頁(3/31)和玩伴目錄頁（警告：有裸露鏡頭）。另外還有人為Lenna作了一首詩。
場外花絮
很少人曾經看過原始的圖像檔。幾年前我在研究影像壓縮時，我的一個同事拿到了原始花花公子的複印本，我當然將她掃進了電腦，以下有一張縮圖：
(1972年11月份雜誌封面)
要觀賞全尺寸影像請按這裡。警告!! 此圖含有裸露內容兒童不宜。
Compression Research
本頁中的照片不應用來進行壓縮研究，因為這些都是JPEG檔。標準Lena影像的來源請參考 comp.compression FAQ，或者USC SIPI影像資料庫。
這裡也有一份原始影像未經壓縮的TIFF格式（768K）。本文原文作者使用Lena影像做的研究論文。
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON IMAGE PROCESSING, VOL. 5. NO. 1, JANUARY 1996
有關Lena的一份筆記
在我擔任主編期間，許多人向我建議 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON IMAGE PROCESSING 應該考慮禁止使用 Lena 影像。在各位還不清楚這些紛擾之前，讓我提供一些實據。原始Lena影像是名叫Lena Sjooblom瑞典女郎的照片，刊登於1972年11月份的花花公子雜誌（為了英語 正確發音，有時候將Lena拼為Lenna）。該照片後來在南加州大學經過數位化後，成為學術研究人員的測試影像之一。我相信Lena影像成為影像處理界的標準主要 有兩個因素：第一，該影像混和了許多的細緻部分、平滑區、陰影、紋理等，非常適合測試各類影像處理演算法，是個相當好的測試影像。第二，Lena影像是迷人 女郎的照片，影像處理界的研究人員（大多為男性）受其吸引並不令人意外。伍迪愛倫的電影“Sleeper”中甚至出現Lena影像，Tom Huang告訴我的。在電影中， 伍迪愛倫於2173年醒來，被要求指認過去的一些照片，包含史達林、Charles de Gaulle、以及有Lena影像的花花公子雜誌。這段場景雖然很短暫也不太清楚，但這 是我能親眼看到原始影像唯一的一次。從來自瑞典的二手報導中，Lena現住在Stockholm南方的一個小城鎮，聽說她對於自己照片成為研究領域的標準倒是非常驚訝。 最近幾年，花花公子企業曾思考要求Lena影像的著作權（參考1992一月份Optical Engineering，Brian Thompson的編者序），很顯然的，他們最後放棄了。
那麼，到底問題在哪裡？可想而知，有些研究人員對於Lena影像的來源不太高興。我對他們所持的理由相當同情：我們不應該使用對女性有所歧視的出版品裡 的資料。然而我必須告訴你，在我們研究領域中，不論男、女、或女權主義者，對於Lena議題都有不同的意見，你可能會很驚訝，大多數向我投訴的人竟然是男性。 另一方面，一些非正式的調查結果顯示，大多數的男性根本不知道Lena影像的出處！有些女權主義者主張Lena影像該退休了，然而，我最近倒是遇到一位具有完全 不同觀點的女權主義者。她對Lena影像很熟悉，但她無法想像這有什麼好討論的，當我向她解釋某些人對於使用該影像覺得不安的理由時，她尖銳的回答：「Lena本 人在Lena影像裡已呈現不多，所謂政治正確的諸多意見才真正令我生氣。」
瞭解了吧？我們研究人員中大多數根本不知道有這些爭論（直到現在！），只有參與爭論的人才會有各種不同的意見。既然身為總編輯，我並不覺得應該限制使用， 只有在較為極端的情況下才需要考慮。此外，我也不確定如此做會建立什麼慣例。我們應該禁止啦啦隊影片？我們應該設立監督委員會來建立何謂可接受影像的法條？ 相反的，我選擇等待與觀察，看看情況如何發展，我也不認為當各類影像充斥於影像處理領域後，Lena影像的使用會自然減少。雖然Lena影像的使用看似減少（參考 我們1992一月份期刊），從它出現頻率仍然極高的情形下看來，對於反對使用它的人必然還是會有些刺激。該怎麼辦呢？我比較傾向彼此妥協，建議影像處理界的作 者們對於反對使用Lena影像的人多體念一些，如果有其他影像可完全取代Lena影像，為何不用它們呢？我們畢竟沒有必要激怒同事們吧，或許我們未來還會研究出能 夠處理更多樣影像的影像壓縮法，而不必只針對Lena影像來設計！
DAVID C. MUNSON, JR. Editor-in-Chief, Emeritus
我很高興看到在Tr. Img Proc.當期期刊中至少還有三篇使用Lena測試影像的文章！其他有更多的論文使用「照相師」（The Photographer）影像，或許我們可以 創造一個傳奇：照相師在橋上替Lena照相…;-)
Wired 雜誌上的資料：
女郎玩伴遇上讓她成為網路明星的電腦專家們
Janelle Brown
1997年5月20日下午6點11分
在數以百萬個工程師、研究人員、以及數位影像專家們的桌面裝飾了25年後，花花公子雜誌1972年11月份女郎，也號稱「網際網路的第一女郎」，終於要與 她的仰慕者碰面了。
當Lena Sjooblom的折頁照片在南加州大學被程式設計師們掃瞄並當作數位壓縮及在Arpanet網路（網際網路的前身）上傳輸的測試影像後，Lena已成為網路女王。 幾年之後，Lena影像仍然是業界測試的標準。Lena將於本週在影像科技社群第50屆研討會中第一次公開亮相，並成為數位影像科技歷史回顧中的重要部分。
「他們一定對我很厭煩了…這麼多年來老是看同一張照片。」Lena如此回答，直到去年11月，她還不知道自己已經如此有名，更從未上過網路，但在這個 星期，她忙著簽名、拍照、並在研討會中發表演說。花花公子雜誌協助尋找這位瑞典女郎，她在Stockholm城市裡幫助殘障人士使用電腦（並無網路連線），雖 然花花公子雜誌在對付非法使用雜誌照片的強力手段早已惡名昭彰，但該企業最後還是決定對於這份廣泛流傳的特別折頁不進行任何追訴。
花花公子雜誌新媒體副總裁Eileen Kent說：「我們決定要順應潮流，因為這是特殊的狀況。」
Poem for Lena
蕾娜之詩
0 dear Lena, your beauty is so vast; it is hard sometimes to describe it fast.
噢，親愛的蕾娜，妳的美麗是如此浩瀚，有時候真是很難快速地描述。
I thought the entire world I would impress, if only your portrait I could compress.
如果我能壓縮你的影像，我想整個世界都會印象深刻。
Alas! First when I tried to use VQ, I found that your cheeks belong to only you.
唉呀，當我第一次利用「向量量化」，我發現你的臉頰僅僅屬於原始的你。
Your silky hair contains a thousand lines, hard to match with sums of discrete cosines.
妳絲絨般的頭髮包含了上千線條，根本無法以「離散餘弦」來匹配。
And for your lips, sensual and tactual, thirteen Crays found not the proper fractal.
妳性感的豐唇，即使十三部Cray超級電腦也無法找到適合的「碎形」描寫。
And while these setbacks are all quite severe, I might have fixed them with hacks here or there.
當這些挫折變得越來越嚴重，我只好在影像裡到處修整。
But when wavelets took sparkle from your eyes, I said, "Skip this stuff. I'll just digitize."
然而當「小波轉換」奪走了妳眼神中的光輝時，我說：『不壓縮了！我只要數位化就好』。
by an unknown author
作者不詳
Lenna 97: A Complete Story of Lenna
(http://www.ee.cityu.edu.hk/~lmpo/lenna/Lenna97.html)
Introduction
Engineers, researchers, and students who are familiar with image processing or compression has most likely used the picture of "Lenna" or "Lena" in their experiments or project assignments, as the Lenna picture is one of the most widely used standard test images. Today, the use of Lenna image has been recognized as one of the most important events in the history of electronic imaging. However, very few people have seen the original picture and know the complete story of Lenna. Here is the materials about Lenna I have recently found on the Internet, which includes the recent picture of Lenna in May 1997.
Who is "Lenna" or "Lena"?
From the comp.compression FAQ, we can find that "Lenna" or "Lena" is a digitized Playboy centerfold, from November 1972. Lenna is the spelling in Playboy, Lena is the Swedish spelling of her name. (In English, Lena is sometimes spelled Lenna, to encourage proper pronounciation.) Lena Soderberg (ne Sjooblom) was last reported living in her native Sweden, happily married with three kids and a job with the state liquor monopoly. In 1988, she was interviewed by some Swedish computer related publication, and she was pleasantly amused by what had happened to her picture. That was the first she knew of the use of that picture in the computer business.
When and where the Lenna picture creates?
In the Playboy and Wired News, we know that in the early Seventies Lenna's Playboy centerfold was scanned in by an unknown researcher at the University of Southern California to use as a test image for digital image compression research. Since that time, images of the Playmate have been used as the industry standard for testing ways in which pictures can be manipulated and transmitted electronically. Over the past 25 years, no image has been more important in the history of imaging and electronic communications, and today the mysterious Lenna is considered the First Lady of the Internet.
Why using the "Lenna" image?
Two reason was stated in "A Note on Lena" by David C. Munson. First, the Lenna image contains a nice mixture of detail, flat regions, shading, and texture that do a good job of testing various image processing algorithms. It is a good test image! Second, the Lena image is a picture of an attractive woman. It is not surprising that the (mostly male) image processing research community gravitated toward an image that they found attractive.
Who create the "Lenna" image?
In October 29, 1999, I received an email from Chuck McNanis telling us that the "unknown researcher" who scanned the "Lenna" image was Dr. William K. Pratt. Here is the email:
I worked for 5 years ('78 - '83) at the Image Processing Institute as a system programmer in the Image Processing Lab (IPL) which distributed Lenna and several other images (including the Mandril) which people often refer to as "The baboon image." The "unknown researcher" was Dr. William K. Pratt, now of Sun Microsystems, who was writing a book on image processing and he needed some standard images for it. For a long time the folded up centerfold that had been the basis for that image was in the file cabinet at the lab. I went back in 1997 to visit and the lab has undergone many changes and the original image files were nowhere to be found. The original distribution format was 1600BPI 9-track tape with each color plane stored separately.
--Chuck McManis (USC Class of '83)
Want to see the original Lenna?
The standard digital Lenna image is just a closeup of the original picture with her face and bare shoulder. Recently, Chuck Rosenberg obtained a copy of the original Playboy Magazine and put it on the Internet. Here's a glimpse:
Click here to see the Original Playboy Picture (Caution....Contains Nudity)
The full picture can also be found in the Chuck's site or www.lenna.org.
Want to see the Lenna in 1997?
No problem! Lenna was invited to attend the 50th Anniversary IS&T conference in Boston on May 1997. With the assistance of Playboy, Jeff Seideman (the president of the Boston chapter of the IS&T) arranged Lenna to appear at the IS&T Boston, as part of an overview of the history of digital imaging.
Here is a picture of Lenna taken in May 1997 at the IS&T's conference:
At the conference, she was busy signing autographs, posing for pictures, and giving a presentation about herself. Lenna commented to the Wired reporter: "They must be so tired of me ... looking at the same picture for all these years!"
Currently, Lenna lives near Stockholm and works for a government agency supervising handicapped employees archiving data using, appropriately, computers and scanners.
Where can I find the standard Lenna picture?
The standard version of Lenna is also available on a lot of ftp sites, detail can be found in the comp.compression FAQ. In addition, you can also obtain the Lenna image from the Miscellaneous volume of the USC-SIPI image database, which costs $100 for distribution on 8mm or 4mm tape. The ordering details can be found in Signal and Image Processing Institute of the University of Southern California.
We may have a new standard Lenna image?
As mentioned by Seideman in Playboy Newsdesk, over the years some researchers have complained that they lacked vital information about the Lenna image, such as what type of scanner was originally used, what kind of camera and film. He says that he is working with Playboy's archivist to re-scan Lenna's image and compile all the missing information, including everything from the type of photo emulsion used to make the print to the technical specifications of the scanner. In this way, Seideman says, the image of this Playboy Playmate can remain the standard reference image for comparing compression technologies into the 21st century.
Where can I find compression research using Lenna?
If you are a student, you may be interested in doing image compression research after knowing the Lenna story. In the nineties, wavelet is one of the hottest topics in image compression research. A very good web page that listed the results of the most recent wavelet image coding techniques using Lenna as the test image is published in Image Communication Lab of UCLA. In the SPIHT (Set Partitioning in Hierarchical Trees) site, demonstration images and software are provided for the Said & Pearlman algorithm. This is one of the most impressive image compression algorithms in terms of performance/bit rate/complexity tradeoffs. A Lenna Results Page is also available on the Internet, which consists of reconstructed images using adaptive wavelet coder and JPEG. To start your research, the wavelet image compression construction kit could help you a lot, which contains images, wavelet transform code, filter coefficients, and lots of other resources for wavelet compression. For more wavelet coding related sites, you can find on the Signal Processing and the Multimedia Information Infrastructure. Finally, we are sure that after the discovering of the complete Lenna story, we will enjoy our research more with the lovely Lenna picture.
Lai-Man Po
First version: July 28, 1997
Second version: Nov. 4, 1999
Last update: Feb. 21, 2001
