OPTICAL WAVELET TRANSFORM BY THE PHASE-ONLY JOINT-TRANSFORM CORRELATOR

A method is presented that performs the optical wavelet transform with liquid-crystal televisions as spatial light modulators operating only on the phase of the incident coherent light. The architecture is the joint-transform correlator, and the wavelets and the image to be trans formed are encoded in the input plane of the system. The mathematical formalism describing the adaptation of the joint-transform correlator to the wavelet transform is given and extended to the operation of the phase-only joint-transform correlator. A new wavelet is described for two-dimensional image processing, and experimental results are presen ted for optical wavelet transforms done in real time by use of this wa velet in the phase-only joint-transform-correlator architecture. The a nalysis is extended to multiwavelet (multispectral) analysis by the jo int-transform correlator, and simulation results are given. Finally, e xperimental results with the phase-only joint-transform correlator app lied to multiwavelet analysis are presented. (C) 1996 Optical Society of America