What does interpolated mean?

When something has an interpolated resolution of "whatever," what

exactly does that mean, and why is it so much higher than the

regular resolution?

 

What do I have to do to get that interpolated res?

<a href="http://www.dpreview.com/learn/?/Glossary/Digital_Imaging/Interpolation_01.htm">http://www.dpreview.com/learn/?/Glossary/Digital_Imaging/Interpolation_01.htm</a>

http://www.acdsystems.com/English/Community/ColumnsArticles/DigitalCamera/camera-2003-12-21.htm

 

 

http://faqs.kodak.com/Digital_Cameras_English/FAQ_20_13222.shtm

 

 

http://www.scantips.com/basics07.html

http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=interpolated&x=0&y=0

Your basic resolution forms a regular grid. With a different resolution you get points that mostly fall in between points of the basic grid; the new points' values are determined from whichever neighbors they have on the original grid. Several methods may be employed in calculating those values.

 

If the new resolution is higher than the original resolution, then the interpolation does not actually produce a more detailed picture.

Hi Evan, Put a bit more simply, interpolation in one respect is the digital equivalent of the enlarger. It's a bit different in that you can interpolate up - that is, add pixels, or interpolate down - or "intelligently" throw pixels away. Sometimes it's referred to as up-rezzing and/or down-rezzing - or simply making the image larger or smaller. Hope this helps!

Interpolation generally refers to calculating arbitrary values between known sample points. Such as say a cubic spline function; if you know the curve points for say x=1 and x=10, then you can calculate x=5, or x=5.000001. (A cubic spline concocts for each data point a cubic polynomial curve segment that has the same first and second order differentials as the data point.)

 

*Resampling* is the process of taking a set of samples and calculating a completely new set of samples that represent the same signal, just at different points. If the result isn't mathematically guaranteed to represent the same signal (as is the case with spline functions), then it's generally referred to as interpolation. If it's guaranteed to represent the same signal, then it's resampling. For many operations, demosaicing ab/uv channels, interpolation is actually more useful than resampling.

Also read <a href="http://www.photo.net/learn/resize/">Display, Printing, DPI and PPI</a> (http://www.photo.net/learn/resize/).

Jan, can you now rewrite that in English. LOL.

Interpolated is like diluting milk; beer; lemonade. At some point the common Joe six pack will notice the beer is wimpy. Kids will detect too much Sanalac mixed with real milk. Hamburger helper added to 1 Lb of hamburger will not feed a NFL football team well. Minox and "pixel helper" doesnt equal a nice 8x10" negative.

Also read the explanation by Sean De Merchant in this thread <a href="http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=009zd8">http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=009zd8</a>.

I like the dilution analogy Kelly. :) Good one!