Psychophysics and the Improvement of TV Image Quality

The motivation for contemporary efforts towards the development of improved television systems is presented. The impossibility of obtaining substantial improvements by straight-forward means, such as increasing the line and frame rates, without excessive bandwidth expansion, is discussed. The television process is described as a linear system whose task is the transmission of a “video function”, which is continuous in x, y, and t. The fidelity requirements for the transmission of the video function are related to the psychophysical properties of the human visual system, which are reviewed. Making use of the prospects of quite complicated signal processing through developments in semiconductor technology, a series of possibilities for improved systems is explored. Some of these proposed methods take advantage of the spatio-temporal characteristics of the video function which are inherent in its role as the conveyor of picture information to human viewers. Others deal with the special characteristics of TV cameras and displays as perceptual information processors and make use of signal processing to improve their performance.

Print ISSN

0036-1682

Published

1984-01

Content type

Original Research

DOI

10.5594/J16807