Raster scan

A Raster scan, or raster scanning, is the pattern of image detection and reconstruction in television, and is the pattern of image storage and transmission used in most computer bitmap image systems. The word "raster" comes from the Latin word for a rake, as the pattern left by a rake resembles the parallel lines of a scanning raster.

In a raster scan, an image is cut up into a sequence of (usually horizontal) strips known as "scan lines". Each scan line can be transmitted in the form an analog signal as it is read from the detector, as in television systems, or can be further divided into discrete pixels for processing in a computer system. When the image is displayed, each scan line is turned back to a line across the television screen or computer monitor. After each scan line, the position of the scan line is advanced, typically downward across the image in a process known as vertical scanning, and a next scan line is detected, transmitted, stored, retrieved, or displayed. This ordering of pixels by rows is known as raster order, or raster scan order.

Theory and History

The concept of raster scanning was inherent in the original mechanical disc-scanning television patent of Paul Nipkow in 1884.

Images prepared for halftone printing used screens, or rasters in the German terminology, at least from 1897. Eder [Josef Maria Eder, "Ausführliches Handbuch der Photographie" Halle: Druck und Verlag von Wilhelm Knapp, 1897] writes of "die Herstellung von Rasternegativen fur Zwecke der Autotypie" (the production of raster negatives for halftones).

Max Dieckmann and Gustav Glage were the first to produce actual raster images on a cathode-ray tube (CRT); they patented their techniques in Germany in 1906. It has not been determined whether they used the word "raster" in their patent or other writings.

An early use of the term "raster" with respect to image scanning via a rotating drum is Arthur Korn's 1907 book which says (in German) [Arthur Korn, "Elektrisches Fernphotograhie und Ähnliches", Leipzig: Verl. v. S. Hirzel, 1907] : "...als Rasterbild auf Metall in solcher Weise aufgetragen, dass die hellen Töne metallisch rein sind, oder umgekehrt" (...as a raster image laid out on metal in such way that the bright tones are metallically pure, and vice versa). Korn was applying the terminology and techniques of halftone printing, where a "Rasterbild" was a halftone-screened printing plate.

There were more uses of "Raster" by German authors Eichhorn in 1926: [Gustav Eichhorn, "Wetterfunk Bildfunk Television (Drahtloses Fernsehen)", Zürich: Teubner, 1926] "die Tönung der Bildelemente bei diesen Rasterbildern" and "Die Bildpunkte des Rasterbildes" ("the tone of the picture elements of this raster image" and "the picture points of the raster image"); and Schröter in 1932: [Fritz Schröter, "Handbuch der Bildtelegraphie und des Fernsehens", Berlin: Verl. v. Julius Springer, 1932] "Rasterelementen," "Rasterzahl," and "Zellenraster" ("raster elements," "raster count," and "cell raster").

The first use of "raster" specifically for a television scanning pattern is often credited to Baron Manfred von Ardenne who wrote in 1933: [Manfred von Ardenne, "Die Kathodenstrahlröhre und ihre Anwendung in der Schwachstromtechnik", Berlin: Verl. v. Julius Springer, 1933.] "In einem Vortrag im Januar 1930 konnte durch Vorführungen nachgewiesen werden, daß die Braunsche Röhre hinsichtlich Punktschärfe und Punkthelligkeit zur Herstellung eines präzisen, lichtstarken Rasters laboratoriumsmäßig durchgebildet war" (In a lecture in January 1930 it was proven by demonstrations that the Braun tube was prototyped in the laboratory with point sharpness and point brightness for the production of a precise, bright raster).

"Raster" was adopted into English at least by 1936, in the title of an article in "Electrician". [Hughes, L. E. C., "Telecommunications XX-IV: The Raster," "Electrician" 116 (Mar. 13):351–352, 1936.]

The mathematical theory of scanning was developed in detail using Fourier transform techniques in a classic paper by Mertz and Gray of Bell Labs in 1934 [Pierre Mertz and Frank Gray, "A Theory of Scanning and Its Relation to the Characteristics of the Transmitted Signal in Telephotography and Television," "Bell System Technical Journal", Vol. 13, pp. 464-515, July, 1934] .

References

See also

*Pixel
*Raster graphics
*Rasterisation
*Image resolution
*Computer display standard
*Broadcast television system