OPTICAL INFORMATION-PROCESSING AND ITS AP PLICATIONS

This report presents research on parallel optical information processi ng technology currently under development by the authors. Data for mul timedia applications, such as image processing and voice recognition, consists of a large amount of data so that high performance processing becomes necessary. It is thought that parallel optical information pr ocessing is capable of performing suitably fast parallel calculations. We have fabricated an optically-addressed liquid crystal spatial ligh t modulator (SLM) that is a necessary component for optical informatio n processing systems. A system using this SLM has succeeded in generat ing a real time hologram. The system can also perform instant edge ext raction and singular pattern detection, based on phase conjugate techn ology. In the future, we intend to develop a three-dimensional hologra phic display for moving images. Another system consisting of an LED mo dulator is being developed for applications, such as DCT (Discrete Cos ine Transform) calculation. These technologies will contribute to the development of new multimedia systems.