In sensing, two elements are required to acquire digital images.

The first is physical device that is sensitive to the energy radiated by the object we wish to image.

The second called a digitizer, is a device for converting the output of the physical sensing device into digital form.

Specialized image processing hardware usually consists of the digitizer plus hardware that performs other primitive operations such as arithmetic and logical operations (ALU). Eg. Noise reduction. This type of hardware sometimes is called a front end subsystem.

The computer is an image processing system is a general purpose to supercomputer Software which include image processing specialized modules that performs specific tasks Mass storage capability is a must in image processing applications.

Image displays in use today are mainly color TV monitors.

Hardcopy devices for recording images include laser printers, film cameras, inkjet units and CD-ROM.