This textbook presents the fundamental concepts and methods for understanding and working with images and video in an unique, easy-to-read style which ensures the material is accessible to a wide audience. Exploring more than just the basics of image processing, the text provides a specific focus on the practical design and implementation of real systems for processing video data. Features: includes more than 100 exercises, as well as C-code snippets of the key algorithms; covers topics on image acquisition, color images, point processing, neighborhood processing, morphology, BLOB analysis, segmentation in video, tracking, geometric transformation, and visual effects; requires only a minimal understanding of mathematics; presents two chapters dedicated to applications; provides a guide to defining suitable values for parameters in video and image processing systems, and to conversion between the RGB color representation and the HIS, HSV and YUV/YCbCr color representations.