Advancing technology in detector arrays, flat panel displays, and digital image processing provides new opportunities to expand imaging applications and enhance system performance. Technical managers and design engineers are faced with evaluating the cost, weight, and performance of an ever-expanding selection of technology options. This tutorial text provides the theory, procedures, and information necessary to evaluate and compare the performance of available imaging technologies. Part I updates the earlier work presented in Analysis of Sampled Imaging Systems (2000). Part II discusses performance evaluation of electro-optical imagers. Part III provides computer programs (in supplemental online materials) and up-to-date information on detector arrays, optics, and display options.

The book covers a variety of display formats and interfaces, and provides detailed information on available focal plane arrays (FPAs). Particular emphasis is placed on theory and practice for the wide variety of available infrared FPAs. Technologies represented include InSb, HgCdTe, QWIP, and uncooled thermal arrays. Information is provided on the quantum efficiency, blur, crosstalk, and noise characteristics of each technology. The detector and array dimensions of available FPAs are provided. The information on optics, display, and FPA subassemblies allows the model user to make quick and realistic performance assessments of electro-optical imager designs.

This tutorial is written for the design engineer or system analyst interested in quantifying the performance of electro-optical imagers. Advancing technology in detector arrays, flat panel displays, and digital image processing provide new opportunities to expand imaging applications and enhance system performance. Technical managers and design engineers are faced with evaluating the cost, weight, and performance of an ever-expanding selection of technology options. This book provides the theory and procedures for performance assessment.

This text superscedes Analysis of Sampled Imaging Systems, which was published by SPIE Press in 2000. Part I updates the earlier work. Part II discusses performance evaluation of electro-optical imagers. Part III provides computer programs and up-to-date information on detector arrays, optics, and display options. This book provides the theory, procedures, and information needed to evaluate and compare the performance of available imaging technologies.

Our prior work Analysis of Sampled Imaging Systems focused on the mathematical formulism needed to analyze sampled imagery. That book described the sampled imager response (SIR) function. SIR quantified sampled imager aliasing as well as the system transfer response. Fourier transform theory was used to describe and quantify sampling artifacts such as display raster, blocky images, and the loss or alteration of image detail due to aliasing.

However, the metrics provided by the earlier book were rules of thumb. Sampled imager design rules were based on experience and experimentation. No theory existed to quantify the effect of aliasing on visual task performance. The earlier work provided guidance on how to optimize sampled imagers by minimizing aliasing. Analysis of Sampled Imaging Systems did not provide a procedure to quantify the impact of aliasing on performance.

In the intervening years since the first book, we have discovered that the effect of aliasing on targeting performance is predictable by treating aliasing as noise. This book presents a resolution metric that predicts the effect of imager blur, noise, and sampling on the probability of correctly identifying targets. This new publication includes quantitative procedures for evaluating target acquisition performance.

Part I of this book includes all of the pertinent material from Analysis of Sampled Imaging Systems. The first five chapters remain substantially the same as the previous work. These chapters introduce sampling concepts and describe the differences between shift-variant and shift-invariant systems. Chapter 2 on Fourier optics is extensively rewritten. The errors associated with assuming separability in Cartesian coordinates are discussed, and examples are provided. The blurs associated with vibration and electronic stabilization are described. In Chapter 3, additional examples are added to better describe the SIR function. The focus of Chapters 1 through 5 remains the same, however. These chapters provide the mathematical tools needed to analyze sampled imagers.

Part II of this new book includes Chapters 6 through 10. This new material describes electro-optical imager evaluation. Chapter 6 describes target identification experiments. These experiments quantify visual task performance. Chapter 7 describes a resolution metric that predicts the probability of identifying targets. Chapter 7 also discusses the relationship between imager resolution and field performance. Chapter 8 explains aliasing as noise theory. For some years, we have known how to predict the effect of noise on target acquisition. Aliasing as noise theory predicts the effect of aliasing on target acquisition. Chapters 9 and 10 provide details on analyzing thermal imagers and imagers of reflected light, respectively.

Part III provides computer programs that implement the theory. These programs calculate the resolution of thermal and reflected light imagers. The programs are used to evaluate expected target acquisition performance and to compare imagers and assess the benefit or penalty of design changes.

Information is also provided to help make realistic assessments of imager performance. The book discusses optical performance and provides the characteristics of typical, good, and ideal lens systems. The book also contains information on a variety of display formats and interfaces, as well as detailed information on available focal plane arrays (FPAs). The information is presented in written form and is also coupled to the computer programs.

Particular emphasis is placed on theory and practice for the wide variety of available infrared FPAs. Technologies represented include InSb, HgCdTe, QWIP, and uncooled thermal arrays. Information is provided on the quantum efficiency, blur, crosstalk, and noise characteristics of each technology. The detector and array dimensions of available FPAs are provided. The availability of current information on optics, display, and FPA subassemblies allows the model user to make quick and realistic performance assessments of electro-optical imager designs.