Smart adaptive optic systems using spatial light modulators

Many factors contribute to the aberrations induced in an optical system, At mospheric turbulence between the object and the imaging system, physical or thermal perturbations in optical elements degrade the system's point sprea d function, and misaligned optics are the primary sources of aberrations th at affect image quality. The design of a nonconventional real-time adaptive optic system using a micro-mirror device for wavefront correction is prese nted, The unconventional compensated imaging system presented offers advant ages in speed, cost, power consumption, and weight. A pulsed-coupled neural network is used to as a preprocessor to enhance the performance of the wav efront sensor for low-light applications. Modeling results that characteriz e the system performance are presented.