Definitions for "Modulation Transfer Function"
Keywords:  mtf, sinusoidal, spatial, sine, fourier
Describes the modulation of an image as the frequency increases; ratio of modulation between image and object. Also called sine wave response.
The modulation transfer function of an imaging system measures the spatial frequency modulation response of the system. As an imaging system processes or records an image, the contrast modulation of the processed or recorded image is different from the input image. The MTF can be thought of as a curve, indicating for each spatial frequency the ratio of the contrast modulation of the output image to the contrast modulation of the input image. It is formally defined as the magnitude of the Fourier transform of the line spread function of the imaging system.
The ratio of the image amplitude to the object amplitude as a function of sinusoidal frequency variation in the object.