LENNA

'Lenna' or 'Lena' is the name given to a standard test image originally cropped from a ''Playboy'' magazine centerfold picture of Lena Söderberg, a Swedish model who posed naked for the November 1972 issue. The image is probably the most widely used test image for all sorts of image processing algorithms (such as compression and denoising) and related scientific publications.
The anglicised version "Lenna" of Söderberg's name comes from the ''Playboy'' article; ''Playboy'' changed the original "Lena".

Contents

History

Impact

Controversy

See also

Notes

References

External links

History

The picture's history was described in the May 2001 newsletter of the IEEE Professional Communication Society, in an article by Jamie Hutchinson:Jamie Hutchison, "Culture, Communication, and an Information Age Madonna," ''IEEE Personal Communication Society Newsletter'' Vol. 45, No. 3, May/June 2001, PDF
Lenna was not the first ''Playboy'' magazine image to be used to illustrate image processing algorithms. Lawrence G. Roberts used a 1960 ''Playboy'' image, with permission and attribution, in his 1961 MIT master's thesis on image dithering.^[1]

Impact

David C. Munson, editor-in-chief, January 1996 IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, cited two reasons for the popularity of the image in research:David C. Munson, Jr., "A Note on Lena," ''IEEE Transactions on Image Processing'', Vol. 5, No. 1. Jan. 1996 online
Lenna is so widely accepted in the image processing community that Söderberg was a guest at the 50th annual Conference of the Society for Imaging Science and Technology in 1997.^[2]

Controversy

The use of the image has produced some controversy, with some people concerned about ''Playboy'' magazine as the source of the image, and with the image being copyrighted.
When the IS&T wanted to invite Lena to their meeting,^[3]
Coincidentally, ''Playboy'' states the issue was its best-selling ever, having sold 7,161,561 copies as of May 2006.^[4]

See also

★ Cornell Box

★ Utah teapot

★ Stanford Bunny

★ Standard test image

Notes

1. Lawrence G. Roberts, ''Picture Coding Using Pseudo-Random Noise'', MIT, S.M. thesis, 1961. online
2. Imaging Experts Meet Lenna in Person
3. Janelle Brown, "Playmate Meets Geeks Who Made Her a Net Star
", ''Wired News'', May 20, 1997 online
4. Playboy FAQ

References

★ Digital Image Processing, , Rafael C., Gonzalez, , , — image used numerous times in chapter 6

External links

★ The comp.compression FAQ

★ http://www.ee.cityu.edu.hk/~lmpo/lenna/Lenna97.html

★ The Lenna Story - Contains a link to an un-cropped scan of the original Playboy photograph