Ethical Considerations in Image Processing: Balancing Innovation and Privacy

Introduction

Modern day image processing operations including image recognitions can take place with the help of Artificial Intelligence (AI) frameworks like machine learning. These image processing applications handles and processes various entities like people, objects, and scenery in videos/ images. Now a days, many digital image processing projects have started to make use of such frameworks. These advanced image-related techs yield numerous advantages like empowerment of automatic vehicles; enhancement of security monitoring; and enhancement of medical diagnostic attempts. However, there are certain ethical considerations that are required to be taken into account for ensuring the unbiasedness in algorithms; rendering of confidentiality; and avoiding the misuse of these advanced image techs. In this write-up, we will take you through these ethical considerations in detail along with a few image processing projects for ECE students.

Read Also: MATLAB-based Image Processing Projects

Advantages of advanced Image Processing

Modern day image processing operations including image recognitions yield multitude of advantages, namely, facilitation of automatic vehicles; security monitoring-related enhancements; and better medical diagnostic outcomes. Some of the notable advantages of advanced image processing techs are as follows:

• In the transportation domain, state-of-the-art image recognitions have empowered many self-driving vehicles to recognize objects and traverse surely in the road traffics.

• In the security domain, state-of-the-art image recognitions are being utilized for improvising the monitoring prospects (for example, suspect identifications with reference to criminal tracings) and raise the level of safety of general people.

• In the healthcare domain, state-of-the-art image recognitions are able to raise the accuracy and pace of many diagnoses (for instance, earlier stage-recognition of carcinoma cells) being made in the health centers.

Ethical Considerations

Though research investigations rely on the prospects of transparency, trust, and innovation, it additionally need science enthusiasts and academicians to ensure a few ethical aspects of whatever they do in their research investigations. These ethical aspects (or mostly known as ethical considerations) often need to be taken into account in any research activities or product development to not only ensure improvements, but also to maintain the safety and other related aspects. Hence, it is critical for research investigators to understand and maintain certain ethical considerations (these changes from one research to another) in their research investigations.

Need for Ethical Considerations

Developments in Artificial Intelligence (AI) have paved the way for subsequent enhancements in the tech of image recognition as a whole. However, just like other research genres, there are certain ethical considerations that need to be considered in digital image processing projects as well. There is a stringent need to maintain a proper stability between privacy issues and level of innovation, which is much difficult to achieve and maintain.

Important Ethical Issues of AI-based Image Recognitions

Though there are many ethical considerations like accountability, transparency, fairness, and societal values when it comes to state-of-the-art image recognitions, privacy is the most important ethical consideration amongst all. 

Privacy

As we widely utilize advanced image recognition techs, there is a possibility for the non-authorized collection and usage of personal data. For example, deployment of face-based recognition systems for recognizing persons in public places, posing issues regarding privacy and monitoring. 

Biasness

The next ethical issue is that biasness in the algorithms, (i.e.) the algorithms just like AI-based algorithms can eventually amplify or extend cultural and social biasness, resulting in biased treatment of specific communities. 

Misusage

Finally, the possibility of misusing of AI-based recognition techs is a serious issue. The misuse of these image recognition techs includes atrocious actions like identity theft or cyberbullying.

Responsibility for Ethical Considerations

Organizations developing and using AI-based recognition techs need to be accountable for every ethical aspect and they also need to prioritize the critical ethical aspects like liability, transparency, fairness, etc. Not just the organizations can fully take the responsibility of ensuring ethical aspects, but also the individuals need to take their own responsibility for ethical considerations.

Stabilizing Innovation with Privacy issues

If a proper stability between privacy issues and level of innovation could be achieved, then it becomes possible to develop and implement ethical facts that confirms the accountability, transparency, fairness, and societal values in the state-of-the-art image recognitions. The coordinative efforts from the appropriate stakeholders are much required for being able to promote an ethical paradigm that directs the accountable implementation of state-of-the-art image recognitions.

It is necessary to set-up policies and regulations for protecting the privacy rights of any individuals alongside the appropriate level of innovation. After setting up of the policies and regulations, it is necessary for any involved organizations to prioritize the ethical aspects like accountability, transparency, fairness, and societal value. Finally, each individual must know the possible threats associated with state-of-the-art image recognitions and subsequently adopt appropriate steps to secure at least their privacy, reducing the quantum of personal info being available online.

Not just the research investigators/ professionals need to be aware of the ethical considerations, but also the students, who do their image processing final year projects need to be aware of these considerations.

Top 30 Image Processing projects for ECE students

After briefing about the probable ethical considerations, let us move to image processing project ideas now. We have curated a list of top 30 image processing projects for ECE students by covering its diverse project genres like denoising in image processing, MATLAB projects on image processing, segmentation in image processing, enhancement in image processing, classification in image processing, etc.

• Facial and Voice Recognition Based security and Safety System in Car

• Raspberry Pi Based Vehicle Starter On Face Detection

• Color Correction Based on CFA and Enhancement Based on Retinex with Dense Pixels for Underwater Images

• Contrast Enhancement of Medical Images Using Statistical Methods with Image Processing Concepts

• Combining highlight removal and low-light image enhancement technique for HDR-like image generation

• SCOM-Spacio Temporal Constrain Optimization for Salient Object Detection 

• Visual Tracking with Weighted Adaptive Local Sparse Appearance Model via Spatio-Temporal Context Learning

• Home Quarantine Guard Using Face Recognition

• Crowd Detection Camera to Prevent Covid-19

• High protection bank locker security system using live image and voice authentication 

• Secure Fingerprint Bank Locker With Image Capture

• Implementation of Vision Based Object Tracking Robot

• Denoising of the Medical Image using Haar SWT in Comparison with Daubechies Wavelet 

• Comparison of Different Filtering, Smoothing Filters in Digital Image Processing 

• A Novel Algorithm for Kidney Stone Detection Using Image Processing Techniques 

• Design and Implementation of a Cloud Particle Shape Recognition Algorithm Based on MATLAB

• An Efficient Adaptive Algorithm for Electron Microscopic Image Enhancement and Feature Extraction

• Determination and Analysis of Arthritis Using Digital Image Processing Techniques 

• An Adaptive Image Steganography Method Based on Histogram of Oriented Gradient and PVD-LSB Techniques

• Securing Medical Images using Encryption and LSB Steganography

• A New Image Encryption Algorithm for Grey and Color Medical Images

• Identification of currency with artificial intelligence techniques

• Image Quality Enhancement for Wheat Rust Diseased Images Using Histogram Equalization Technique

• Clustering Based Blood Smear Image Segmentation Techniques

• A Residual Chaotic System for Image Security and Digital Video Watermarking 

• A Single Neural Network for Mixed Style License Plate Detection and Recognition 

• Feature Detection and Matching with Lineous Adjustment and Adaptive Thresholding 

• Whole Slide Images Based Cervical Cancer Classification Using Self-Supervised Learning and Multiple Instance Learning

• A Supervised Segmentation Network for Hyperspectral Image Classification 

• Combined Use of a Bilateral and Median Filter to Suppress Gaussian Noise in Images 

Must Read: List of Image Processing final year projects

Summary

The techs of image recognition powered by AI, or any state-of-the-art techniques are known to offer several advantages including but not limited to the following: empowerment of automatic vehicles; enhancement of security monitoring; and enhancement of medical diagnostic attempts; etc. Despite, offering these many advantages, advanced image processing techs are still prone to certain imbalance between privacy issues and level of innovation alongside other ethical issues like accountability, transparency, fairness, and societal values. If these ethical issues are not taken into account in any research activity/ product development, then it means that ethical aspects (for instance, privacy) are being comprised just for the innovation’s sake. Hence, it is imperative to adopt proper measures by having proper ethical considerations in place in any research activity/ product development.