In this paper we shall begin our discussion with the relationship between optics and humans, in which we see that light has indeed provided us with a very valuable source of information. A general optical communication concept is discussed, in which we see that a picture is indeed worth more than a thousand words. Based on Shannon's information theory, one can show that entropy and information can be simply traded. One of the most intriguing laws of thermodynamics must be the second law, in which we have found that there exists a profound relationship between the physical entropy and information. Without this relationship, information theory would be totally useless in physical science. By applying this relationship, Maxwell and diffraction-limited demons are discussed. And finally, samples of information optics are provided.

Date Published: 31 March 2000
PDF: 10 pages
Proc. SPIE 4043, Optical Pattern Recognition XI, (31 March 2000); doi: 10.1117/12.381602

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 4043:
Optical Pattern Recognition XI
David P. Casasent; Tien-Hsin Chao, Editor(s)