Discrimination of form in images corrupted by speckle

The problem investigated is that of a human observer having to distinguish between certain specified geometrical forms corrupted by speckle-an idealization of the problem of a scientist studying a synthetic aperture radar map. Specifically, the cases of two simple alternative forms and of two and four orientations of a simple form have been considered. A theoretical model is developed for the observer's decision process by analogy with optimal receiver theory, and the probability of a correct decision is related to form parameters like size, contrast, and looks. These calculations are verified by psychophysical experiments using computer-simulated pictures

On Bell: II. The system is sound

Breaking up the Bell System in a way that I regard as arbitrary would make it harder, rather than easier, to harness new technology to the service of users. At present, telecommunications switching and transmission, information processing, and communication are all going digital. Unified development of this common technology would be the most efficient path to follow, not fragmented development through an enforced diversity of sources

A Proposed Wattmeter Using Multielectrode Tubes

For direct measurement of small amounts of power, or for measurement of power over a ride range of frequencies, dynamometer wattmeters are unsatisfactory, and vacuum tube wattmeters are often resorted to

Looking backward and looking forward: Right or wrong

The future doesn't shape itself to fit prophesies. Rather, it follows a path paved by the successful work of those with a yen for more

How Far Can Data Loops Go?

The switching of addressed blocks of data through a network (message switching) is particularly suited to the sort of inquiry-response communication characteristic of many business transactions. In a system of interconnected loops, efficient message switching can be attained with distributed control rather than common control. The initial capital investment in such a system would be low and the investment would grow only as the system grew

A statistical evaluation of data for the study of the influence of physical variables of a contact lens upon the centering of the lens on the cornea

A statistical evaluation of data for the study of the influence of physical variables of a contact lens upon the centering of the lens on the corne

Interview with John Robinson Pierce

An interview in three sessions in April 1979 with John R. Pierce, often referred to as the father of the communications satellite. A leading applied physicist, Pierce went to work for Bell Telephone Laboratories in 1936 after receiving his PhD in electrical engineering from Caltech. He spent the next thirty-five years there, where he made important contributions to the development of the traveling-wave tube and the reflex klystron, rising to become executive director of Bell's Research-Communications Principles Division. Pierce was also a pioneer in communications satellites, playing a key role in the development of two of the earliest, Echo and Telstar. In this interview he recalls his undergraduate education at Caltech in the late twenties and early thirties, the early years at Bell, radar work during the war, and the beginnings of America's satellite program. Pierce was also a prolific author of science fiction, sometimes under the pen name J. J. Coupling. In the mid-1960s, he served on the President's Science Advisory Committee (PSAC). He retired from Bell Labs in 1971 and returned to Caltech as a professor in the Division of Engineering and Applied Science, and he comments on the changes (and the similarities) he found in undergraduate education at Caltech. While at Bell, Pierce developed a lifelong interest in computer-generated music and psychoacoustics, the science of consonance and dissonance; in the latter part of the interview, he discusses his work with Max Mathews on music synthesis. A year after this interview was conducted, he became professor emeritus at Caltech, and in 1983 he joined Stanford's Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA) as a visiting professor. Pierce died on April 2, 2002, in Mountain View, California