Fourier Optics

Abstract

Fourier optics is a special part of optics connected to transformation and processing of optical images. The large amount of information provided in the form of two-dimensional images requires substantial e ort in order to finally obtain an optical image of high quality. Such problems gain foremost significance when considering photographs of the earth’s surface from aircraft and for images of the earth and other objects taken from spacecraft. Such images are taken at long distances, sometimes even of astronomical scale. Therefore, many factors exist which distort an image and are represented as noise of the final optical image. In this respect, the nature of image processing problems is quite similar to well known radio-technique problems - extraction of the useful signal from a background of noises. The subject of Fourier optics is to study and to develop methods for optical image processing using optical systems [1]. Thus, this area of optics includes a number of integral transformations of an image, such as Fourier transform, spatial filtration, convolution operation and many others.