THE HISTORY OF THE DEVELOPMENT AND THE PRESENT STATE OF RADIATION RECEIVERS AS PRIMARY CONVERTERS OF OPTICAL QUANTITIES, SIGNALS, AND IMAGES

摘要

The development of radiation receivers has always been stimulated by the desire and the need for man to obtain more objective information on the surrounding world. Man, who possesses from birth natural receivers of visible optical radiation ― the eyes, obtains additional information on the environment, which provides him with the ability to travel in space, and perceptually or nonperceptually to take decisions. Up to now, the eyes exceed in their various characteristics any of the artificial photoreceivers that have been invented by man. In fact, they possess the following properties: 1. they have high sensitivity, enabling one to see at practically any time of the day; 2. they provide color perception of the surroundings; 3. they enable objects to be distinguished that are as small as the human hands are able to manipulate; 4. they enable rapidly changing events to be recorded at a rate sufficient for a human to respond to them; 5. they enable information to be perceived when there are large changes in illumination, both on a bright sunny day and on a dark night.