Optical signal processing and television bandwidth compression

A television band compression scheme which depends primarily on matching in one sense the eye's sensitivity to flicker has been proposed. For a static picture as the source material, it is found that the compression ratio is not directly limited by the flicker effect, but the picture quality assessed subjectively, falls quite fast as the compression ratio is increased. A compression ratio of 1.5:1 is accompanied by a very small drop in subjective quality. Using a "high frequency boost" circuit the compression ratio can be increased to 3:1 under conditions of satisfactory picture quality. Experiments were performed using as source a movie picture, and higher compression ratios than those for the static picture were indicated. All the experiments were performed using a simulated television transmission system. The system was based on a laser source, and it is an improvement on a system designed by Otto Meier in 1968.Applied Science, Faculty ofElectrical and Computer Engineering, Department ofGraduat