Effects of motion on the radiological image.

A method to study the loss of resolution of radiological images caused by patient motion is presented. Optical transfer functions (OTF) are computed for motion with uniform velocity and with simple harmonic oscillation. The line spread function (LSF) of a pattern of motion can be generated from the image of a long, narrow moving slit. Once the LSF is known the OTF of the motion can be obtained by Fourier transform.