Pixelization in 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. It is primarily used for censorship. The effect is a standard graphics filter, available in all but the most basic bitmap graphics editors. Pixelization has also been used for artistic effect, notably in the art print The Wave of the Future , a reinterpretation of Katsushika Hokusai 's The Great Wave off 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 computer graphics image. 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. A drawback of pixelization is that any differences between the large pixels can be exploited in moving images to reconstruct the original, unpixelized image; [ 3 ] 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.
Nudity is obscured on broadcast 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.
