Image and Information

Abstract

A well-known old adage says that {\em "A picture is worth a thousand words!"} (attributed to the Chinese philosopher Confucius ca 500 years BC). But more precisely, what do we mean by information in images? And how can it be retrieved effectively by machines? We briefly highlight these puzzling questions in this column. But first of all, let us start by defining more precisely what is meant by an "Image."