Holst's Practical Guide to Electro-optical Systems

Manufacturers find that many potential customers ask the same questions (a.k.a. frequently asked questions or FAQs). The answers appear in application notes, catalogs, and on the Internet. This practical guide is a compendium of those answers (one-stop shopping). The answers are provided in graphs, equations, or diagrams. An engineering approach is taken, the equations may be approximations, but the region of applicability is clearly stated. Most pages have a box at the bottom that highlights a fact, "rule-of-thumb," "back-of-the-envelope" equation, or a limitation. Exceeding the limitation can be called a "gotcha."The mathematics in Chapter 1 supports the data analysis in Chapter 19. Radiation theory, optics, detectors, and electronics are in Chapters 2 through 6. The differences between analog and digital formats are in Chapter 7. Chapters 8 and 9 provide display parameters and those characteristics of the human visual system that apply to target detection and image interpretability. System analysis (via the modulation transfer function) is in Chapter 10 with several design examples. The sampling theorem (Chapter 11) must be used with extreme care when discussing an imaging system. There are a myriad of resolution metrics (Chapter 12). Atmospheric transmission and range performance is found in Chapters 13 and 14. System performance predictions can only be ascertained with carefully designed test setups and test procedures (Chapter 15). While Chapters 7 though 12 and 14 apply to imaging systems, electro-optical systems includes lasers, laser radar, and fiber optics (Chapters 16 though 18).