Teaching the concept of convolution and correlation using Fourier transform

Convolution operation is indispensable in studying analog optical and digital signal processing. Equally important is the correlation operation. The time domain community often teaches convolution and correlation only with one dimensional time signals. That does not clearly demonstrate the effect of convolution and correlation between two signals. Instead if we consider two dimensional spatial signals, the convolution and correlation operations can be very clearly explained. In this paper, we propose a lecture demonstration of convolution and correlation between two spatial signals using the Fourier transform tool. Both simulation and optical experiments are possible using a variety of object transparencies. The demonstration experiments help to clearly explain the similarity and the difference between convolution and correlation operations. This method of teaching using simulation and hands-on experiments can stimulate the curiosity of the students. The feedback of the students, in my class teaching, has been quite encouraging.Comment: 6 pages, 10 figures, Proceedings Volume 10452, 14th Conference on Education and Training in Optics and Photonics: ETOP 2017. Event: 14th Conference on Education and Training in Optics and Photonics, ETOP 2017, 29-31 May 2017, Hangzhou, Chin

SciTech News Volume 71, No. 2 (2017)

Columns and Reports From the Editor 3 Division News Science-Technology Division 5 Chemistry Division 8 Engineering Division 9 Aerospace Section of the Engineering Division 12 Architecture, Building Engineering, Construction and Design Section of the Engineering Division 14 Reviews Sci-Tech Book News Reviews 16 Advertisements IEEE

From white elephant to Nobel Prize: Dennis Gabor’s wavefront reconstruction

Dennis Gabor devised a new concept for optical imaging in 1947 that went by a variety of names over the following decade: holoscopy, wavefront reconstruction, interference microscopy, diffraction microscopy and Gaboroscopy. A well-connected and creative research engineer, Gabor worked actively to publicize and exploit his concept, but the scheme failed to capture the interest of many researchers. Gabor’s theory was repeatedly deemed unintuitive and baffling; the technique was appraised by his contemporaries to be of dubious practicality and, at best, constrained to a narrow branch of science. By the late 1950s, Gabor’s subject had been assessed by its handful of practitioners to be a white elephant. Nevertheless, the concept was later rehabilitated by the research of Emmett Leith and Juris Upatnieks at the University of Michigan, and Yury Denisyuk at the Vavilov Institute in Leningrad. What had been judged a failure was recast as a success: evaluations of Gabor’s work were transformed during the 1960s, when it was represented as the foundation on which to construct the new and distinctly different subject of holography, a re-evaluation that gained the Nobel Prize for Physics for Gabor alone in 1971. This paper focuses on the difficulties experienced in constructing a meaningful subject, a practical application and a viable technical community from Gabor’s ideas during the decade 1947-1957

SciTech News Volume 71, No. 3 (2017)

Columns and Reports From the Editor.........................3 Division News Science-Technology Division....5 Chemistry Division....................8 Conference Report, Marion E, Sparks Professional Development Award Recipient..9 Engineering Division................10 Engineering Division Award, Winners Reflect on their Conference Experience..15 Aerospace Section of the Engineering Division .....18 Architecture, Building Engineering, Construction, and Design Section of the Engineering Division................20 Reviews Sci-Tech Book News Reviews...22 Advertisements IEEE..........................................