|
Preface
During a period of some fourteen years of direct involvement in the field of
practical visual acquisition I have become acutely aware of the diversity of
disciplines with which it is necessary to become familiar in order to appreciate
the problem as a whole. Although a mass of relevant literature exists, the
important sources remain widely scattered. Furthermore, while a great deal of
academic work has been carried out on facets of the problem, our frequent
experience at British Aircraft Corporation is that a further and necessary step
must be taken to translate the ideal into the practical.
In the course of work which has required my colleagues and myself to search
widely through the literature and carry out a number of pieces of supporting
research, it became clear that there was a place for a book which, while not
going into any particular discipline in extreme depth, would provide, in one
volume, a survey of the whole field of visual acquisition and copious references
for more detailed study. The layout of the book is aimed at introducing the
reader progressively to the basic workings of the eye, threshold behaviour in
simple acquisition situations, the effects of imperfections in image quality and of
complex stimulus structure, and finally external influences due to the atmosphere
and surface reflectance properties. The final chapter is then devoted to a
discussion of the acquisition problem in typical practical field situations and the
possibilities of providing adequate simulation in the laboratory. In keeping with
modern practice the units used throughout the book are the SI system. This has
inevitably meant that many equations and figures familiar to established workers
in the field have taken on a new look. It is hoped that this is beneficial to new
|
