We in the Air Force Systems Command are pleased to co-sponsor the 10th SPIE Technical Symposium. I, personally, am grateful for the opportunity to serve as "keynote" speaker.

The characteristics of the laser give it a unique potential value in areas of optical instrumentation which require short light pulses of high intensity. A solid-state laser may be operated in pulses 10 to 20 nanoseconds in duration with intensities far in excess of that required for most photo-optical instrumentation applications. The temporal coherence of the laser eliminates problems due to chromatic aberrations in the optical system and also permits the experimenter to discriminate against light emitted by the experiment itself.

The resolution requirements for imagery by hologram techniques are given. The case of folding in the reference beam at an angle is treated and the resolution is shown to depend both on the angle of the fold and the film used. In cases where magnification is obtained (i.e., when spherical waves are used) it is shown that magnification is obtained only at the cost of resolution. The significance of these results on the field of lensless photography is discussed.

Characteristic vector analysis provides a statistical method for describing a set of physical data. These mathematics are interesting because they tend to collapse the information into a compact, meaningful form; because they easily adapt to digital computer processing; because they have an inherent flexibility which allows their extension to a wide variety of physical problems. This paper reviews the basic logic of the technique, suggests an alternative computational procedure and outlines several areas in photo-optics where characteristic vector analysis may profitably be applied. Although qualitative aspects of the subject are the primary concern, some time will be devoted to an exposition of the operational mathematics.

The special properties of lasers have stimulated study of many types of laser beam scanning devices. Recent development of ultrasonic light scanning cells as laser beam deflectors suggests many new areas of application such as active optical imaging, high brightness CRT-type displays, acoustic angle sensing and beam steering, search and identification, pattern recognition and terrain clearance. Following a brief review of laser beam deflection theory a system will be described which provides a laser beam scan which can be electronically controlled and programmed at video rates.