Gabor: frequency, time, and memory

Abstract

Dennis Gabor is well-known as the inventor of holography. Less well-known, perhaps, are his contributions to other areas. Yet they are important and, like holography, characteristic of his foresight. In the field of communications, Gabor investigated the classic dichotomy of time and frequency. Guided by analogies to quantum mechanics, he postulated a set of elementary signals and made brilliant use of time-frequency diagrams to analyze communication systems. Applying his theories to acoustics, he researched the mechanism of hearing, defining acoustical quanta in the process and inventing early prototype frequency compressors and expanders. In a completely different field, Gabor, inspired by some early work of Longuet-Higgins on models for holographic temporal recall in the brain, suggested novel approaches which contributed significantly to the understanding of associative memories. In this paper we describe Gabor's pioneering work in these areas and trace the subsequent development by himself and others.