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$Lenna$ despite being an playboy model posing nude here and there, is one of the most used images for image processing. How she came into the world of image processing?
Was it done intentionally by some male scientist who were very much fond of the playboy stuff or is it just a coincidence?
Speaking as someone who worked in imaging tech and related fields from '79 to whenever, I can offer a little more. This image does contain a wide range of spatial frequencies as well as intensity range, making it useful to "torture test" sensors and image processing algorithms.
In general, a human face is a preferred subject because us humans are very good at noticing small errors in images of faces. I'm sure the fact that she was attractive didn't hurt :-) .
And finally, once a few labs started using this photo, it became a "standard reference" that everyone could use to compare their hardware and software against. It's not really a case of "going viral" the way funny cat pictures or stupid memes propogate, but rather that it has functional utility.
