Read an image as a matrix (Java)
<p>I'm planning to use MNIST database to train a classifier to recognize the hand written numbers. I have a few questions:  </p>

<ol>
<li>Can I read an image as a matrix or an array of pixels?<br>
Two options I figured out so far is the <strong>getRGB</strong> and <strong>PixelGrabber</strong>. </li>
<li>How can I read the MNIST database?<br>
I see it's of the form:<br>
00 00 00 00 00 00 54 B9 9F 97 3C 24 ....</li>
</ol>
