TITLE:
The Capacity of a Channel with an Image as the Information Source
AUTHORS:
Lev B. Levitin, Tommaso Toffoli
KEYWORDS:
Quantum Communication, Quantum Limits on Information Retrieval, Information Transmission by Thermal Radiation, Information Content of an Image, Optical Information Channels
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Quantum Information Science,
Vol.4 No.2,
June
27,
2014
ABSTRACT: We consider the physical limitations imposed on the information content
of an image by the wave and quantum nature of light, when the image is obtained
by illuminating a reflecting or transmitting planar object by natural (i.e., fully thermalized) light, or by
observation of an object emitting incoherent (thermal) radiation. The
discreteness of the degrees of freedom and the statistical properties of
thermal radiation are taken into account. We derive the maximum amount of information
that can be retrieved from the object. This amount is always finite and is
proportional to the area of the object, the solid angle under which the
entrance pupil of the receiver is seen from the object, and the time of
observation. An explicit expression for the information in the case where the
information recorded by the receiver obeys Planck’s spectral distribution is
obtained. The amount of information per photon of recorded radiation is a
universal numerical constant, independent of the parameters of observation.