Edge image quality assessment: a new formulation for degraded edge imaging

Abstract

We discuss a formalism to characterize degraded edge images formed in a diffraction limited system (with circular pupil of unit radius) under conditions of incoherent illumination. We introduce a novel definition of degraded edges and consider this approach to model a basic optical mechanism involved in the perception of visual depth and edge detection. We introduce a degradation parameter to quantize the degree of edge blur. We present a generalization of such a procedure by assuming the Heaviside function to be a systematic generator of degraded edges. We reproduce experimentally the predictions made by the formalism proposed herein.