MITRE
 
About Us Our Work Employment News & Events
MITRE Remote Access for MITRE Employees Site Map
Home > Our Work > Technical Papers >

Conversion Between Sine Wave and Square Wave Spatial Frequency Response of an Imaging System

September 2001

Norman B. Nill, The MITRE Corporation

ABSTRACT

The spatial frequency response of an imaging system, known as the Modulation Transfer Function (MTF), is a primary image quality metric that is commonly measured with a sine wave target. The FBI certification program for commercial fingerprint capture devices, which MITRE actively supports, has an MTF requirement. In some cases, however, a square wave ("bar target") must be used in testing, which results in a similar quantity called the Contrast Transfer Function (CTF). This document reports on an investigation of the mathematical relationship between the MTF and CTF, methods for converting between the two, and derives an equivalent CTF from the given spec MTF, for use in the FBI certification program. The methodology presented is applicable to the general case, i.e., whenever conversion between the MTF and CTF of an imaging system is needed.

» Download Paper [PDF, 104KB]

Additional Search Keywords

CTF, MTF, target, FBI, image quality

 

Page last updated: August 2, 2001   |   Top of page

Homeland Security Center Center for Enterprise Modernization Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence Center Center for Advanced Aviation System Development

 
 
 

Serving as Architects of Information Advantage.™
Copyright © 1997-2008, The MITRE Corporation. All rights reserved.
MITRE is a registered trademark of The MITRE Corporation.
Material on this site may be copied and distributed with permission only.

 

Privacy Policy | Contact Us

Boston Business Journal Best Places to Work 2007 Computerworld Best Places to Work in IT 2005-2007 Fortune 100 Best Places to Work 2002-2008