Television Pickup Tubes and the Problem of Vision

Abstract

Publisher Summary This chapter provides a contrast of almost endless variety and complexity of picture pickup devices with the simplicity and universality of the performance scale according to which any of these devices may be judged. It underlines the highly not very unique character of any one pickup tube—and there are scores of them. It was introduced as a selfevident argument for singling out only a few pickup tubes for close attention and these for the one purpose of tracing the successive realized approximations to ideal pickup tube performance. A complete general relation is derived for the amount of information that a picture pickup device can furnish as a function of the brightness of scene at which it is directed. Because the final limitations of pickup devices are set by the quantum nature of light, because these limitations have not been widely discussed, and because the particular devices in the new developing field of television are of less interest for the mechanics of their operations, the emphasis throughout has been on the setting up of an absolute scale of performance according to which the many and diverse pickup devices can be oriented.