| Sumario: | After three decades of research, a form of optical computing should reach the marketplace in 1996. OCA Applied Optics, of Garden Grove, California, has developed the first light-based processor, called an optical correlator, that can be plugged into a personal computer. Correlators are specialized devices designed to locate “targets” within “scenes” presented to them. They operate by changing images of both the targets and the scenes into mathematical expressions known as Fourier transforms: coded versions of an image that show the thickness, spacing, and direction of every line in that image in a consistent way. The benefit of an optical correlator is that the processing is accomplished by the basic physics of the system rather than by electronic shuffling. According to Jean-Baptiste Richon, managing director of Optical Flow Systems in Edinburgh, changing from digital processing could mean a thousand-fold increase in machine productivity.
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