Sampling in imaging systems

Abstract

The total system response of a sampling imaging system to a single input spatial frequency is obtained. The first Brillouin zone (familiar to the literature of solid-state physics) is shown to play an important role in discussing the aliasing phenomenon of such systems. The precise quantitative way in which the input energy is distributed among the aliases in the output is determined by the detector array geometry and by the physical characteristics of the detectors and the spots on the output display. A tentative, but plausible, hypothesis is entertained concerning the data processing of the human eye and its relation to the first Brillouin zone. The principal quantitative results of this study show that the usual discussions concerning the modulation transfer function of such systems are oversimplified.