Importing image data into NumPy arrays

We are going to demonstrate how to do image processing using Python's libraries such as NumPy and SciPy.

In scientific computing, images are usually seen as n-dimensional arrays. They are usually two-dimensional arrays; in our examples, they are represented as a NumPy array data structure. Therefore, functions and operations performed on those structures are seen as matrix operations.

Images in this sense are not always two-dimensional. For medical or bio-sciences, images are data structures of higher dimensions, such as 3D (having the z axis as depth or as the time axis) or 4D (having three spatial dimensions and a temporal one as the fourth dimension). We will not be using those in this recipe.

We can import images using various techniques; they all depend on what you want to do with image. Also, it depends on the larger ecosystem of tools you are using and the platform you are running your project on.

In this recipe we will demonstrate several ways to...