42s
3, MAY 1968
A Television Scanning Scheme for a
Detector-Noise-Limited System
PETER GOTTIJER
Abstract-The signal-to-noise ratio at a single-element detector
scanning a television picture can be improved if the detector receives
light from many picture elements simultaneously. This paper de-
scribes a scanning reticle, with transparent and opaque elements
chosen according to a binary biorthogonal sequence, that will provide
an exact reproduction in the same scanning time as a reticle scan-
ning only one element at a time. For general pictures, the proposed
system will require greater bandwith, but for pictures consisting of
only a few bright spots, the bandwidth can actually be compressed.
This system provides a “quick look” picture in less than the usual
scanning time, which is of particularly good fidelity if the original
picture contains only a few bright spots.
I. INTRODU~T~OK
N INFRARED surveillance system is frequently
limited by a noisy detector. If such .a detector
A
scans a two-dimensional television picture, then
the signal from each resolution element must be larger
than the noise of the detector during the interval in which
the detector dwells upon that resolution element. In
many cases, it is impossible to increase the brightness of
the picture, while preserving contrast, to overcome a noisy
detector.
This paper presents a scheme whereby the detector
receives signals from many resolution elements simul-
taneously. This procedure leads to a larger signal at the
detector than would be possible with an ordinary single-
spot scanning of one resolution element at a time.
Ii’or a general picture, the larger signal will vary over a
larger range than would the signal from a single-resolution
element’. Consequently, for transmission of a signal from
detector to receiver, the multiple-spot scan system will
require a greater bandwidth than would a single-spot scan
system of similar resolution and scanning time. It will
be seen from the development that follows that the re-
quired bandwidth is increased by the same factor by which
the detector noise is decreased.
It is quite evident that detector-noise suppression could
be purchased at the same cost of increased bandwidth, if
some means could be found to intensify the image before
using the detector to convert from optical to electrical
signal. The procedure described here is shown to be
equivalent to such an image intensification without re-
duction of relative contrast.
Manuscript received January 3, 1967. This work was supported
by NASA under Contract NAS 7-100. It was begun at Libra-
scope, General Precision, Inc., Glendale, Calif., and completed at the
Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
The author is with the Jet Propulson Laboratory, California
Inst.itute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif. 91103
IEEE TRANS.ACTIONS ON INFORMATION THEORY, VOL. IT-~& NO.
II. GENERAL DESCRIPTION
A typical multiple-spot scan system, which we will
call area scan, can be implemented as shown in Fig. 1.
This system can be described by the following steps.
1) The optical intensities of a number of small spot
areas of the original picture are simultaneously focused
on a single detector so that they are added together while
being converted into an electrical signal.
2) The electrical signal is transmitted over a suitable
communication link.
3) The electrical signal is converted back to optica’l
intensity at small spot areas corresponding to those used
to measure the original picture. (Each reproduced spot
gets an equal signal, even though the original spot’s may
have had unequal signals.)
4) The reticle is moved so that a new group of spots
is used for both the original and reproduction screen, and
the whole process is repeated. (This motion may be either
continuous or discrete-one resolution element at a time.
In either case, such a motion constitutes the scanning
process.)
The illumination on each resolution element of the
reproduction screen is integrated over a sequence of these
steps. The spots shown in Fig. 1 are transparent holes in
an otherwise opaque reticle, rather than being the focused
electron beams used in conventional television systems.
The system could be made equivalent to spot-scan tele-
vision by use of a moving reticle similar to that shown in
Fig. 2. If the holes are assumed to be square and of length
e on a side, then the reticle system is equivalent to any
ordinary spot-scan system of L/e lines.
The system, as described above, is somewhat imprac-
tical because the simultaneously illuminated spots com-
bine to produce a bright background on the reproduction
screen, and there is no convenient way to remove this
background in an actual optical, integrating screen with-
out also reducing the contrast. However, if the repro-
duction and integration for each resolution element are
performed by a digital computer, then the background
can be computed by first averaging over all the resolution
elements, then simply subtracting. In this paper, we
assume that such a subtraction procedure is readily
available.
The analysis below will be in terms of a one-dimensional
picture and reticle, such as that shown in Fig. 3. This is
not a serious restriction because it is possible to scan a
two-dimensional picture in such a manner that it would
GOTTLIEB:TELEVISIONsCANNINGSCHEME
INTENSITY ADDER
(DETECTOR CONVERTS
TO ELECTRICAL SIGNAL)

L----L----L----’
L----L-

Fig. 4. Reticle for two-dimensional area scan.

‘,--SCAN SPOTS
(HOLES IN SCREEN)

Fig. 1. Conceptual arrangement of a reticle scanning system.

r-1 cb REPEAT

Fig. 5. Dissection of two-dimensional reticle pattern, with 12 x 12

ORIGINAL f-DIRECTION OF MOTION
PICTURE
Fig. 2. Reticle for ordinary spot-scan system.
BASIC PATTERN
PICTURE LENGTH
REPEATED PORTION
RESOLUTION
ELEMENT 4 Ef I
Fig. 3. Reticle for one-dimensional
simulate a one-dimensional picture. For example, the
reticle shown in Fig. 4 consists of the chain of squares
with the elements of each successive square cyclically
permuted by one row. After a complete cycle, the original
basic pattern is repeated, and the whole process starts
again. This procedure is equivalent to scanning a one-
dimensional picture formed by placing the rows of the
two-dimensional picture end to end, as shown in Fig. 5.
The equivalent one-dimensional reticle is derived from
the original basic pattern in the same manner. In practice,
of course, the one-dimensional reticle is designed first,
and the basic two-dimensional pattern is constructed
from it.
It is found that the confusion caused by scanning many
spots simultaneously can be eliminated by using a reticle
with the location of transparent and opaque regions
chosen to correspond to the symbols of a word taken from
a binary pseudo-noise code, with a two-valued autocor-
relation function.“’ The total number of resolution ele-
ments must be fitted to one of the possible code-word
lengths.“]
The only other requirement for this exact reproduction
is that the reticle be moved through a total number of
steps equal to the number of resolution elements in the
picture. This is the same number of steps required to
produce an ordinary spot-scan television picture. If we
desire to obtain a picture as rapidly as possible, we will
resolution elements, into a one-dimensional reticle.
scan system would provide an improvement in this respect,
since photoconductor response time is usually inversely
proportional to intensity of excitation.
It will be shown that the exact area-scan reproduction,
requiring the same minimum scan time as ordinary spot-
scan television, requires a bandwidth for transmission that
is generally larger than the bandwidth required for spot-
DIRECTION
RETICLE
OF
MOTION +
scan television by a factor of the square root of the number
of resolution elements. This increased bandwidth can
area scan.
be partially compensated by a natural data compressive
feature of the area-scan television system. This feature
results from the fact that the area-scan picture will
develop as the reticle moves through one complete scan
length. This permits one to obtain a relatively noisy
picture in less than the total scan time required for the
exact reproduction described in the preceding paragraph.
There are certain types of pictures for which this noise
is small so area scan can provide a reasonable data com-
pression scheme.
The character of the final reproduction can be most
conveniently demonstrated by considering the reticle to
have elements that are either completely transparent or
opaque. In Section III, we first consider such a reticle
to be moved in steps of one resolution element at a time.
We then generalize the treatment, in Section IV, to
include the more practical, and more efficient, case of
continuous reticle motion. For simplicity, the treatment
in Sections III and IV will be limited to the exact repro-
duction and, in Section V, will be generalized to the partial
reproduction with potentiality for data compression.
III. DISCRETE Momox
Let us describe the intensity of a resolution element of
the original picture by B(m), where B(m) is t,he average
brightness of one resolution element of the picture:
B(m) = i [cIi” B(Y) dy.

be limited by the response time of the detector (for a The variable m can take on integral values from 1 to M,
single-channel system with only one detector). The area- where M is total number of resolution elements of the
430 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INFORMATIOX THEORY, MAY 1968
picture. If E << B(y)/,!?(y) over all the picture, then the every value of M = 2” - 1, each sequence merely being
error of this approximation can be determined from B(m) a cyclic permutation of one basic sequence of length ilI
= B(y) + r2/24B”(y). by any number of steps up to 1111.These n/r sequences are
If we describe the reticlc by the function W(m), which almost orthogonal (and the deviation from orthogonalit>
is equal to 1 for a transparent spot and equal to 0 for is uniform, causing only a spurious uniform background)
an opaque spot, and if we let m take on values from 1 to so the scanning process is actually a decomposition of
M, then the signal sent from the detector during the Zth the picture in a series of code words. These code words
step of the reticle is form a group under t,he operation of multiplication; they
If should not be confused with the related PN sequences of
X(Z) c u(m)Tv(nz - 1) + V(Z) (1) O’s and l’s also described in Golomb,’ which form a
rn=l group under modulo 2 addition. In particular, it should
where V(1) is the average noise of the detector during the be noted that the O’s and l’s of the W function described
Zth interval. Since after every ill elements the reticle above do not correspond to the l’s and O’s of the alterna-
repeats, the argument of the reticle function m - 1 must tive PN code description given by Golomb.
be taken modulo M. The intensity of each of the reproduction resolution
If the signal then modulates a light shining through a elements can now be found by substituting (4) into (3)
reticle, identical with the one in front of the original to give
picture and moved in synchronization (or with some fixed-
time delay), then the intensity on the resolution element I(n) = 5” ,g B(m)
of the reproduction screen is proportional to
L(n, I) = ls(Z)W(n - I). + 9 B(n) + 2 W(n - 1) V(Z). (5)
,=I
If the reproduction screen integrates this intensity over
The first term of this expression is independent of n and,
ill time intervals, or steps, then the resultant total inten-
consequently, contributes only a uniform background,
sity is proportional to (interchanging orders of summation)
which can be easily removed if the reproduction is done
on a digital computer (as is explained in Section II).
I(n) = g L(n, I)
L=l The second term of the expression reproduces the original
picture with intensity variations smeared out over each
= g B(m) g [TY(m - l)W(n - I) + V(Z)W(n - Z)]. (2) resolution element. The third term represents the noise
due to the detector.
It is most convenient to represent the reticle functions If we square (5), and average over the ensemble of
by W(m) = ($)[l + w(m)] where w(m) then takes on detector-noise voltages, then we obtain the mean-square
values of f 1, as is appropriate. We can then write the intensity at resolution element II, assuming a det,ect,oi
autocorrelation function noise autocorrelation function V(l) V(P) = Vi 6,, 1I

2 W(m - I) TV(n - 1)

= F + i $ Iw(m, - I) + w(n - 2) + x(nz - 1)7&z - Z)].

(3)
We now choose M = 2” - 1, where p is an integer, so
t’hat the values of w(m) can bc chosen to correspond to the
symbols of a binary pseudonoise maximal sequence of
length M.
Such a sequence consists of (M + 1)/2 minus l’s and
(M - 1)/2 plus l’s arranged in such a manner that the
autocorrelation function
where the uniform background is assumed to have been
subtracted from the reproduction.
The rms signal-to-noise ratio can then be writ’ten as
An ordinary spot-scan system using the same detector,
the same number of resolution elements, and the same
stationary reticle time between jerks would produce a
signal-to-rms detector-noise ratio of

z w(m- Ow(n
-0
= r(m - 72) = (Ad + 1) a,,,, -
where 6,) s is the Kronecker delta function which equals
1 when m = n, and equals 0 otherwise. The generation
of such sequences, using shift registers, has been dis-
cussed extensively in connection with information theory
coding, and we follow the terminology of the summary
given by Golomb.“’ There are n/r such sequences for
1 (4) The improvement given by the area-scan system results
from the increased signal strength at the detector, as
was mentioned in Section I. As a simple verification of this
approach, we not’e that the reticle for M = 3 will consist
of one clear and two opaque elements. This will be identical
with the spot-scan reticle of the same length, and (7) and
(8) then give identical results, as would be expected.
GOTTLIEB: TELEVISION SCANICING SCHEME
IV. C~STISU~US MOTION
We consider a reticle of length L = to the picture length,
and we divide this reticle into M resolution elements,
each one of length E = L,lM. We move this reticle over
the one-dimensional picture with velocity u, so that the
signal from the detector is given as a function of time by
*S(t) = .I’L B(x) W(n: - vt) dz + v(t).
0
If we use this signal to modulate a light shining through
an identical reticle just as was done in Section III, and
if we integrate over a period T = ME/V, then the intensity
on the reproduction as a function of position is
I(y) = IL B(x) dx IT TV(x - vt)W(y - vt) dt
0 0
+ .I‘T W(y - vt)V(t) dt.
0
To evaluate this expression, we make the decomposition
similar to that in Section III, W(x - vt) = (i) + (+)w(x -
vt). Now the integral of w(x - vt) over t is simply --7
where 7 = E/V. The autocorrelation function is given by
I
1.(z) = w(.? - vt)w(.T + z - vt) c/t
I0
I-7 Iz/ > E/2.
This autocorrelation for nonintegral Z/E can be understood
in terms of the results for integral Z/E which correspond
to the resolution element indices for the discrete reticle
motion case discussed in Section III. We simply note
t.hat the autocorrelation function for nonintegral values
of z is a linear combination of the autocorrelations of
the two nearest integers above and below. For 1x1> c/2,
the autocorrelation functions for the two neighboring
integral values are equal, and since the percentage of
each autocorrelation used is such that two percentages add
up to one, the total autocorrelation is the same for in-
tegral and nonintegral values of X/E. For 1x1 < e/2, one
of the two nearest integers is zero and the two autocor-
relation functions must be averaged accordingly. Sub-
stitution of (11) into (10) gives the intensity on a resolu-
tion element of the reproduction screen
I(y) = ‘p IL B(x) dx
II
T+ T.I‘
y+(a’ B(x) 2)
+-c v- (r/2)
1- =
fz- 1
dx
+ iT W(y - vt)V(t) dt.
The meaning of these three terms is the same as in (5)
for the case of discontinuous motion.
To estimate the faithfulness of the reproduction rep-
resented by the second term, we again assume e to be
431
considerably smaller than the typical dist,ance over which
the picture varies significantly, so that the integral of
this term can be approximated b3
p(Y)= ; [qy) - 91. (13)
It can be seen that the picture distortion due to nonzero
(9) B”(v) is proportional to E2/96 in the case of continuous
motion, while the smearing, inherent in the discrete
motion, will be proportional to the larger ~‘/24.
The mean-square picture intensity is obtained by squar-
ing (10) and averaging over the ensemble of noise voltage
to give (after subtraction of the uniform background)
(12(~1)
= (~)*P(l,, + NY) (144
(10) where we have taken the detector-noise autocorrelation
function (V(t)V(t’)) = Vie-‘t-t”‘” and have changed
variables and interchanged the order of integration so that
N(y) = 12 1’ & e-“‘”
..I“-’ [I + w(y - vt - vx) + w(y - vt)
0
+ w(y - vt)w(y - vt - vz)] dt. (14b)‘
The analysis of this expression for reproduction noise is
complicated by the dependence on position y. We can
simplify by noting that in most cases of interest we will
want r at least as great as the response time of the detector.
This implies that 7 > LY,so that cy << T, in which case
the integrand of (14b) will be large only for x << T, so that
the upper limit of the t integration can be approximated
by T. The noise no longer depends on y, and the integral
can be evaluated in a straightforward manner to give
1 _ 4 (1 _ e-‘/“)
1 (I4c)
where we have neglected a: and T in comparison with T,
but have retained the ratio T/CYin comparison with terms
of order 1. The rms signal-to-noise ratio can then be
writt,en as
If we simulate an ordinary spot scan by continuously
moving a reticle with only one hole of length E, then the.
02) analogous signal-to-noise ratio is
.-
I(Y)
dc (164
V,
II
I-“;(l-e
-T~mT
432 IEEETRANSACTIONSON INFORMATIONTHEORY,MAY 1968
where, for convenience of comparison, we have written any given picture. If we neglect the detector noise, for
simplicity, then the reproduction can be expressed as
(16b) follows:

A comparison of (16a) and (16b) with (13) and (15)

shows that the area-scan signal-to-noise ratio is larger
I,(n)
=2mtB(m)
than the spot-scan signal-to-noise ratio by a factor pro-
portional to .\/T/T. If we further compare with (7) and + i 5 [w(i + m - I) + w(j + n - I)
11
(S), and if we remember that T/T is just the number of
resolution elements, then the continuous and discontinuous + w(i + n - Z)w(j + n - Z)lB(m)
motion cases are seen to give similar results. where the answer depends on the starting point j of the
Another feature to be seen by comparing (16b) with code word. If we average over i, applying the methods of
(13) is that the area-scan reproduction, after subtracting Section III in a straightforward manner, the result is
the background, has less distortion due to nonzero curva- completely analogous to (5):
ture B”(y). This arises because the correlation between
original and reproduction reticle has only width e/2 for (IL(~))~ = $ (Mi 3, mz B(m) + j& (M + l)B(n). (17)
the area scan with pseudo-noise sequence, while the
analogous width for the spot-scan correlation is E. If a To estimate the noise in this reproduction, we square
digital computer is used to reproduce the received picture, I,(n) and average over j, using the relation
then either case of curvature distortion could be corrected
w(j + m - Z)to(j + n - 1)
easily.
, + w(j - 2 + R)(l -
= 6mn 6,,,)
v. BaKDWIDTH LIMITATIONS AKD PARTIALLY
DEVELOPED PICTURES to reduce the w products. It should be noted that k is a
function of m - n such that, as m - n takes on all
In the area-scan system, with M resolution elements per
possible values for the code word, k also takes on all
picture and an average of M/2 elements simultaneously
possible code difference values and k # m - n. If the
focused on the detector, we will have an average signal
summations over 1 are then performed, the result is
M/2 times larger than would be present for an ordinary
spot-scan system. The fluctuations of signal about this
average will be of the order of a times the spot-scan
signal. If we assume that the average brightness does not
change appreciably from picture to picture, then the
area-scan system does not have to transmit the larger
amount of information required to describe the average + B*(n)L’(M + 1) + M + 1 F
signal. The average signal can be subtracted at the trans- 16M M (18)
mitter, and then the remaining fluctuations, of order
dz larger than those for the spot scan system, will
require a bandwidth dn/r times larger than would be m,m’=l2.1’=1
required for spot scan. *(l - 6,,,)(1 - 6,!,,) + 2 8m’-n,l’--l + 2 8m’.-k,2-2’
This difficulty can be overcome for pictures consisting
primarily of a relatively small number of bright points .(l - LA + 2 L-n.l--14 - &dlB(m)B(m’). (19)
by using the data compressing capability of the partial The summations over Z and 1’ in this expression for
reproduction. This can be most conveniently illustrated F can be evaluated most conveniently by changing varia-
by reconsidering the discrete-motion analysis of Section bles to x = 1 + I’, P = Z - Z’, since the summand is
III with the reticle moved only L (less than M) steps for independent of X. The result is then

163’ = ,,,,&,<,
2 CL -I m - m’l)B(m)B(m’)(l - &,,,I + L %g @(ml@ - L$

+ 2,,,z,,(L- Ik’
- kl)B(m)B(m’
- &,J(l
- L,Jl
)(l - &,F)
+2Wn) mz B(m)+4[m$ nO],,,z,,CL
- Im’- nl)B(m’
- S,r,,J
)(l+ rn=l
5 B(@B(m)(l
- CL,,> 2%

+4,m,z<L
CL - Im’- kl)B(m’-)B(m)(l
&A(1- L~,k)
( ‘1 B m &+(l - S,,,,)
1 B(m’)(L - 1%- Vl)(l - &t,J(I - &,,r)

for L < M/2, (204

GOTTLIEB: TELEVISION SCANNINGSCHEME 433

16F = L 2 B2(m)(2 - 6,,,) + (2L - M) c B(m)B(m')(l - Lmr)

w,=I L,,7l-l7L,t‘l-L
+2 ,v,,mT~fi,-rCL - lm - m’lMm)B(m’)(l - &w> + (2L - M>
c
I,>,&-P',2M-L
B(m)B(m')(l - &,,,)(l - &,,A(1 - smzm,)

.,,,mkz,$f-, (L - Ik - Ic'j)B(m)B(m')(l - &,A(1 - &,,J(l - Sm.,,)

+ 2LB(n) 2 B(m) + 2(2L - M)[g B(m)] I,,m,& B(m')(l - 6,,a,)

m=1 m=l
+ 4 ,,,m~,I-, (L - lm’- nl>B(m’)(l- LT.~~

+ 2~ c B(lc)B(m)(l - L,,) + 2(2L - M) c B(m)B(m’)(l - 6,,,)(1 - LJ,,)

m=l L>lWL’-kl>J-I.

+ 4 ,,r-&-L CL- lm’- kl)B(m)B(m’)U

- L,,)(l - L,,,>
c B(m') a,,,*(1 - a,,,,) + 2(2L - IV) c B(m’)(l - S,,,,n)(l - Sk<,,)

+4[gn(m)] ,,._,,gaf-, CL - In - fc’l)B(m’)(l - Lf,,)(l - h,,) for L > M/2. Wb)

These rather cumbersome expressions can be simplified show that for L = ilil the mean-square noise is identically
in a few cases. If we take B(m) = 1 at m = n,, and B(m) = zero, as would be expected from the analyses of Sections
0 for m # n, (a picture with only one bright spot), and III and IV.
examine a relatively undeveloped picture with L << M,
then the mean-square picture noise can be approximated VI. CONCLUSION
by We have shown that the area-scan system provides
exact reproduction when used with the same number of
(Ii(n)>, - (IL(n))? = F + j$ (21) scan steps as with ordinary spot scan L = M. Unfor-
tunately, exact area scan requires a bandwidth 4%
where times larger than the spot-scan system. We have also
16F = 2L + LB(n) + 2L 6,,k,(l - 6,,,&) shown, however, that a reasonably good, inexact picture
can be obtained with L << M if the picture consists of
+ 4G - Ino - nl>(l - &,Jh(L - Ino - nl> a relatively few bright spots. This type of underdeveloped
+ 4(L Ino - &I)(1 - bJ(l - LJW - Ino - hl) picture permits the bandwidth time product to be com-
pressed by a factor of L/M relative to the exact area
+ ?(L - In - &I)(1 - L,J(l - L&(L - In - kOl), scan (with L = M), and by a factor of L/ dM relative
with k, a function of n, - 1~having the same functional to spot scan.
form as k described above, and with h(y) being the unit The main advantage which area scan offers is the sup-
step function defined by pression of detector noise. The cost is an increase in
transmission channel bandwidth or a decrease in picture
h(y) = 1 if y > 0: h(y) = 0 if g < 0. quality. Both these costs will be small if the picture has
Since the mean square picture noise is now seen to be a relatively small fraction of bright elements.
proportional to L, and the actual picture brightness
changes squared are proportional to L', the standard ,k'KXOWLEIXMENT
deviation will be proportional to l/-\/z, and there will The author would like to thank Dr. E. C. Posner for
be fairly true reproduction for 1 << L << M. Similar his helpful comments on the manuscript.
results can be obtained for pictures with only a few bright
spots, or a small fraction of the total area lighted, but REFERENCES
the noise increases approximately with the square of the 111A. W. Golomb, Ed., Digital Communicutions. Englewood
number of bright elements. Equations (20) and (21) also Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall, 1964.