BOOKS I maga quality Edited by P.S. Cheatham SPIE Proceedings, Volume 310,1981, pp 221 + vii, $47 This volume continues in the now familiar format of SPIE Proceedings, containing 27 papers read at a symposium on image quality, held in San Diego, August 1981. The first session,%ubjective quality judgements’, contained four papers all concerned in some way with human visual performance. It might have been expected therefore that the second session, ‘Image quality models’, would also relate to human visual performance, so complementing the first session’s subjective measures with models employing objective image analysis functions. In fact this is not so, the papers being concerned with electrooptical, endoscopic and synthetic aperture radar systems, with observers taking a secondary position. One must go back to the first paper of the first session for that model of human visual performance. The papers in session 3, ‘Image quality evaluation’, have in common utilization of the modular transfer function and related techniques to assess a variety of optical systems, whilst the fourth session considers quality considerations in the specific context of photographic and printing processes. The final session, entitled ‘Quality considerations for image processing’, performs the usual function of such sessions and contains a total of seven loosely related papers. Nonetheless, it contains two interesting papers on the influence of data reduction on target recognition and another on the subjective evaluation ofa perceptual quality metric.
in session 2 is a review paper on synchrotron radiation sources and instrumentation, and a preview of several very likely future developments. Other papers in this session deal with the properties of this radiation and there is one which covers the trends and progress in x-ray laser research. The coverage in session 3 of imaging detectors includes electrographic image detectors; electron bombarded chargecoupled device detectors and photon-counting array detectors. General papers deal with ultra-violet sensitive, phosphors for silicon imaging detectors, the ultra-violet transmission of plastic clad silica fibres, and photoninduced noise in space telescope digicons. In session 4 are to be found details of the International UV Explorer launched in 1978 and of the extreme ultra-violet explorer which detects and measures stellar ultra-violet sources at distances well beyond 300 light years. There is a progress report on the high resolution spectrograph for the space telescope and details are given relating to the nearearth ultra-violet environment. Finally, there is an article on occupational skin hazards from ultra-violet exposures which concluded with the statement that there is enough ultra-violet in the normal environment to pose a hazard, and additional exposure from industrial or home sources should be eliminated wherever possible. In conclusion readers of this volume will see the trend of research in this field and will find clear reports of recent progress. H.G. Jemni
Foundations of optical waveguides G. H. Owyang
K.G. Birch
Arnold, 1981, pp xiv t 245, $25.00 Ultraviolet and vacuum ultraviolet systems Edited by W. R. Hunter SPIE Proceedings, Volume 279,1981, pp 232, $47 A meeting held during April 1981 in Washington DC resulted in the 25 papers published here. The purpose of the meeting was to present some of the recent results in the field of the ultra-violet and vacuum ultra-violet spectral regions covering the energy range 3 eV to about 5 keV, or the wavelength range 400 nm to 0.2 run. The papers were presented in four sessions having the titles ‘Laser systems - plasma diagnostics’ (7 papers); ‘Synchrotron radiation soft x-rays’ (5 papers); ‘Imaging detectors’ (7 papers); and ‘Space systems - environmental aspectsof ultra-violet and vacuum ultra-violet’ (6 papers). The papers in session 1deal mainly with rare gas halide lasers, laser fusion and tokamak plasmas. The first paper
OPTICS AND LASER TECHNOLOGY.
FEBRUARY
1983
This text owes its origin to undergraduate and postgraduate courses in optical waveguides. It requires a basic understanding of wave propagation in bounded and unbounded regio_ns.There are 10 chapters, the first of which is a brief review of electromagnetic theory. This is followed by chapters on wave propagation in free space and guided waves in homogeneous media. Analyses are presented of the basic dielectric sheet and of imperfect and inhomogeneous waveguides. Cladded cylindrical and inhomogeneous circular waveguides are also considered together with mathematical techniques involving eigenfunctions and Green’s function. The main object of the book would appear to be that of giving readers the techniques to understand the material in current research papers. The text therefore is almost entirely mathematical but the physical interpretation of the theoretical results is emphasized throughout. Scientists working in the field’of communications could fmd it useful. H.G. Jerrarti
53