OPTS proposes developing a conceptual design for an optical correlator capable of computing in excess of a 100,000 correlation surfaces per second. This capability far exceeds the ability of current digital systems, which can only compute about 1,000 correlation surfaces per second. The proposed design utilizes a OPTS developed, high speed SLM technology that significantly outperforms liquid crystal technology, which can only modulate at a few thousand frames per second. The OPTS developed SLM technology will be integrated with memories for holding templates, utilizing electronic and/or holographic technology. OPTS will leverage existing designs and previous development to create the conceptual design. The conceptual design will include hybrid CMOS/CCD technologies. OPTS has developed a dramatic new architecture for processing and compressing the information contained within the correlation surfaces, hence, reducing power requirements and post processing demands. The conceptual design will easily interface to various sensors and digital interfaces.
Benefit: Ability to process a large number of templates for ATR applications. This has many commercial applications such as surveillance, product inspection, medical imaging, and medical diagnostics.
Keywords: Optical Correlator, Optical Correlator, hybrid analog/digital/optical processor, data compression, high speed SLM, optical neural networks, ATR, holographic memories
