Abstract

A resolution measure is proposed which is more general than the Rayleigh resolution distance and which takes into account a priori object information and interfering noise. The measure allows evaluation of the quality of an optical system, independent of the class of objects being observed. The resolution of an ideal spatially band-limited optical imaging system is calculated as a function of the object-to-noise power ratio for a number of a priori object statistics. It is shown that there exists an optimum object-illumination interval, as a function of the object-to-noise power ratio, which minimizes the degradation due to the limited spatial bandwidth of the optical system and results in the extraction of approximately one bit of information per illumination interval.

© 1969 Optical Society of America

Detection and Resolution of Incoherent Objects by a Background-Limited Optical System*

Carl W. Helstrom
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 59(2) 164-175 (1969)

Detection and Resolution of Incoherent Objects Seen through a Turbulent Medium*

Carl W. Helstrom
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 59(3) 331-341 (1969)

General Diffraction Theory of Optical Aberration Tests, from the Point of View of Spatial Filtering

Richard Barakat
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 59(11) 1432-1439 (1969)

Detection of Incoherent Objects by a Quantum-Limited Optical System*

Carl W. Helstrom
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 59(8) 924-936 (1969)

Bandlimited Image Restoration by Linear Mean-Square Estimation

Charles L. Rino
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 59(5) 547-553 (1969)