OPTICAL IMPLEMENTATION OF VISIBLE GRAY-IMAGE MORPHOLOGY WITH THE VISUAL-AREA-CODING TECHNIQUE

We present a novel scheme of visible gray-image morphology with the vi sual-area-coding technique (VACT). The VACT is a technique of digitize d analog-optical computing in which data are converted into visible co ded patterns and processed with the visible form. Because the achievab le operations in the VACT are identical to those of mathematical morph ology, mathematical morphology is adapted to gray-image morphology wit h the VACT. Computer simulation and optical experiments of the several operations in mathematical morphology verify the correctness of the p roposed technique. The processing capacity of the proposed method is e stimated in terms of the space-bandwidth product.