Pixelization ( British English, pixelisation) or mosaic processing is any technique used in editing images or video, whereby an image is blurred by displaying part or all of it at a markedly lower

resolution Resolution(s) may refer to: Common meanings * Resolution (debate), the statement which is debated in policy debate * Resolution (law), a written motion adopted by a deliberative body * New Year's resolution, a commitment that an individual mak ...

. It is primarily used for censorship. The effect is a standard graphics filter, available in all but the most basic bitmap graphics editors.

As censorship

A familiar example of pixelization can be found in majority of television news and documentary productions, in which vehicle license plates and faces of suspects at crime scenes are routinely obscured to maintain the presumption of innocence, such as how it appears in the television series ''

COPS Cop or Cops commonly refers to: * Police officer Cop and other variants may also refer to: Art and entertainment Film * ''Cop'' (film), a 1988 American thriller * ''Cops'' (film), an American silent comedy short starring Buster Keaton * ''The ...

''. This is especially used in Hungary and Slovakia by RTL Klub. Bystanders and others who do not sign release forms are also customarily pixelized. Footage of

nudity Nudity is the state of being in which a human is without clothing. The loss of body hair was one of the physical characteristics that marked the biological evolution of modern humans from their hominin ancestors. Adaptations related to ...

(including male and

female genitals A sex organ (or reproductive organ) is any part of an animal or plant that is involved in sexual reproduction. The reproductive organs together constitute the reproductive system. In animals, the testis in the male, and the ovary in the female, ...

, buttocks,

nipples The nipple is a raised region of tissue on the surface of the breast from which, in females, milk leaves the breast through the lactiferous ducts to feed an infant. The milk can flow through the nipple passively or it can be ejected by smooth mu ...

pubic hair Pubic hair is terminal body hair that is found in the genital area of adolescent and adult humans. The hair is located on and around the sex organs and sometimes at the top of the inside of the thighs. In the pubic region around the pubis bon ...

, or areolae) is likewise obscured in some media: before the

watershed Watershed is a hydrological term, which has been adopted in other fields in a more or less figurative sense. It may refer to: Hydrology * Drainage divide, the line that separates neighbouring drainage basins * Drainage basin, called a "watershe ...

in many countries, in newspapers or general

magazine A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combinatio ...

s, or in places in which the public cannot avoid seeing the image (such as on billboards). Drug references, as well as gestures considered obscene (such as the finger) may also be censored in this manner. Pixelization is not usually used for this purpose in films, DVDs, subscription television services, or

pornography Pornography (often shortened to porn or porno) is the portrayal of sexual subject matter for the exclusive purpose of sexual arousal. Primarily intended for adults,

(except for countries in which the law requires it). When obscene language is censored by an audible bleep, the mouth of the speaker may be pixelized to prevent lip reading, such as in ''

''. Graphic injuries and excess blood may also be pixelized. Pixelization may also be used to avoid unintentional

product placement Product placement, also known as embedded marketing, is a marketing technique where references to specific brands or products are incorporated into another work, such as a film or television program, with specific promotional intent. Much of th ...

, or to hide elements that would date a broadcast, such as date and time stamps on home video submissions. Censorship for such purposes is most common on reality television series. Image:Pixelization mosaic.jpg, Pixelization was used to anonymize this photograph. File:Marshall Webb and Pixelated Classified Document.jpg#filelinks,

Marshall B. Webb Marshall Bradley "Brad" Webb (born November 27, 1961) is a retired United States Air Force lieutenant general who last served as commander of the Air Education and Training Command. He previously served as Commander, United States Air Force Speci ...

, an American general, sits in the White House Situation Room during Operation Neptune Spear. A classified document on the desk in front of him was pixelized by the government of the United States before the photo was released. File:JacobvanLennep1.JPG, Wall poem in Amsterdam. The image was self-censored by the artist, Rombout Oomen, in 2004. (Pixelization of the

.) File: Entrance of The

Pokémon (an abbreviation for in Japan) is a Japanese media franchise managed by The Pokémon Company, founded by Nintendo, Game Freak, and Creatures (company), Creatures, the owners of the trademark and copyright of the franchise. In terms of ...

Company in Tokyo.jpg, Part of this image, a mural at the entrance to the offices of The Pokémon Company in Tokyo, has been pixelized for copyright reasons. File:Aluminium MacBook.png, The wallpaper and computer icons of this laptop have been mosaicked for copyright reasons

In media

Pixelization has also been used for artistic effect, notably in the art print ''The Wave of the Future'', a reinterpretation of

Katsushika Hokusai , known simply as Hokusai, was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist of the Edo period, active as a painter and printmaker. He is best known for the woodblock print series '' Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji'', which includes the iconic print ''The Great W ...

's '' The Great Wave at Kanagawa''. In this updated print, the image of the large ocean wave shifts from the traditional style of the Japanese woodcut print to a pixelized image and finally to a

wireframe model A wire-frame model, also wireframe model, is a visual representation of a three-dimensional (3D) physical object used in 3D computer graphics. It is created by specifying each edge of the physical object where two mathematically continuous ...

computer graphics image. '' Westworld'' (1973) was the first feature film to use digital image processing to pixelize photography to simulate an android's point of view.

Alternative techniques

A black rectangular or square box (known as censor bars) may be used to occlude parts of images completely (for example, a black bar covering the eyes instead of the entire face being pixelized). Censor bars were extensively used as a graphic device in the January 2012 protests against SOPA and PIPA. A drawback of pixelization is that any differences between the large pixels can be exploited in moving images to reconstruct the original, unpixelized image; squinting at a pixelized, moving image can sometimes achieve a similar result. In both cases, integration of the large pixels over time allows smaller, more accurate pixels to be constructed in a still image result. Completely obscuring the censored area with pixels of a constant color or pixels of random colors escapes this drawback but can be more aesthetically jarring. An additional drawback, when pixelization is used to reduce the repulsing, disturbing or, more generally shocking, aspect of an image, is that all information contained in the pixelized area is lost for the audience. Other visual processing techniques can help reduce the shocking aspect of images or videos while preserving most of the information of the media.

International legal standards

Nudity Nudity is the state of being in which a human is without clothing. The loss of body hair was one of the physical characteristics that marked the biological evolution of modern humans from their hominin ancestors. Adaptations related to ...

is obscured on

broadcast Broadcasting is the distribution of audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum ( radio waves), in a one-to-many model. Broadcasting began ...

television stations in the United States. The Federal Communications Commission states it is a violation of federal law to air obscene, indecent, and profane programming at any time, especially during certain hours. Monetary penalties and revocation of licenses are issued for law breakers.

Japanese pornography Pornography in Japan has unique characteristics that readily distinguish it from western pornography. Pornographic films are known as "adult videos" (AV) in Japan, so Japanese adult videos are "JAV", referring to the Japanese pornographic f ...

laws require that genitals in films (including animated works) and other forms of adult media (such as eroge, drawings, etc) be obscured. Article 175 of Penal Code (Act No.45 of 1907) still in effect today in Japan forbids any person and imprisons anyone who distributes, sells or displays in public an obscene document, drawing or other objects of such nature. In Thailand, restrictions are placed on television broadcast depiction of cigarettes being smoked, alcohol being consumed, or guns being pointed at people. Pixelization is one method of censoring this content. In the Philippines, pixelization is also used if there are scenes of naked people or

cadaver A cadaver or corpse is a dead human body that is used by medical students, physicians and other scientists to study anatomy, identify disease sites, determine causes of death, and provide tissue to repair a defect in a living human being. Stud ...

s, bloody depiction of death by any means (e.g. gunshot wounds) and exposure of innards (sometimes rendered in black and white and blurred), and the finger gesture, among objectionable content. However, nudity and some bloody scenes are cut entirely and pointing of guns or blades to oneself or others are cropped. Philippine law states production, printing, publication, importation, sale, distribution, and exhibition of obscene and pornographic material is strictly prohibited and is punishable by law.

References

External links