Xi. Cognitive Information Processing Academic and Research Staff A. Analyzing the Performance of an Image- Processing System Fig. Xi-1. Standard System. (xi. Cognitive Information Processing) (c)

This report summarizes an E. E. thesis with the same title that was submitted to the Department of Electrical Engineering, M. I. T. , in June 1970. Research has been conducted to establish a method for measuring the performance of an image-transmission system. The measurement criterion used in current research is the subjective response of observers. This involves not only properties of the image, which are usually quantitative, but also the physiology of human vision and the psychology of human perception. These human factors, jointly termed psychophysics, are usually discussed qualitatively and hence have led to imprecise analyses of the performance of image-processing systems. The approach used to control and measure the effects of those parameters that affect human response in an experimental imagetransmission system will be outlined. Two image-transmission systems were computer simulated. One, called the "standard" system, was a variant of pulse code modulation I which involved relatively simple preand post-transmission coding techniques, while the other, called the "Experimental" system, implemented more sophisticated methods to reduce the amount of data to be