Measurement of Modulation Transfer Functions of Simulator Displays

The theory and methodology necessary for measuring the Modulation Transfer Function (MTF) of flight simulator displays is presented. The mathematical development of the MTF from linear system theory is outlined. The two primary methods for measuring MTF, namely the direct and indirect methods, are described and compared. The implementation of the indirect method is described in detail including measurement of the line spread function of a display, calculation of MTF from the line spread function and calibration of the resulting MTF. The MTFs of various simulator display components and displays were measured with the indirect met presented in graphical form. Some of the more interesting characteristics of each MTF are discussed.